


Tiny annoying ghostly roommate

by afoolwhodreams



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghosts, Alternate Universe - Human, Bickering, Broody Carmilla, Character Turned Into a Ghost, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Ghost Laura, Humor, Just Like Heaven au, POV Third Person, Roommates, Tiny Gay Laura Hollis, doctor laura
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-18 21:03:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 23,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8176007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afoolwhodreams/pseuds/afoolwhodreams
Summary: Laura is a hotshot doctor focused exclusively on her carreer. Carmilla is a grumpy broody non-vampire who spends her days drowning her sorrows in cheap alcohol and junk food. Or at least, she tries. It's a little hard to brood and drown in self pity when an annoying shrill of a ghost insists that Carmilla is living in her house and does her best to kick her out. It's even more inconvenient when Carmilla is the only one capable of seeing or hearing said ghost.(Based on the 2005 film "Just Like Heaven")





	1. Chapter 1

The wind was blowing softly, like it was taking its time, moving the leaves in improvised dances. It must have been autumn because the leaves were nice shades of orange, red and yellow, making circles around Laura as if they were happy to see her. She took a deep breath, a small smile playing on her face as she closed her eyes and embraced this rare moment of peacefulness. Even with her eyes closed she could still see the beautiful garden surrounding her, seemingly endless because of the fog around its edges. She could hear the birds chirping in the distance, and a shrill voice calling her, shaking her arm roughly.

“Doctor Hollis!”

Laura jolted awake, jumping up from the uncomfortable chair in the hospital break room.

“I wasn’t sleeping!” she shrieked immediately, but then added, biting her lip sheepishly, “but if I were, how long was I out for?”

“Only a few minutes” The nurse smiled at her, “they need you in the ER”

“I’ll be right there” Laura masked a yawn as she approached the coffee machine. She still wasn’t sure what kind of dreadful concoction that thing distributed, it sure as hell was not coffee, but it was the closest thing she had and she needed all the help she could get if she wanted to stay awake. And she _needed_ to stay awake. She was up for a promotion as hospital attendant and she would be damned if she let that snake of a man steal it from her. After she downed her cup, she quickly exited the lounge and made her way to the ER, but bumped into her obnoxious colleague on the way.

“Hollis”

Theo grabbed her by the shoulders to stop her in her tracks.

“No need to go down to the emergency room anyway. I took care of it while you were sleeping”

“I wasn’t-“

Laura tried to reply indignantly but he was already walking away, winking at her while mouthing ‘you’re welcome’. She huffed before turning to go check on her other patients. She really despised that man.

She checked old Mr Jenkins’ blood pressure and kindly accepted his daily marriage proposal, stitched up a guy who cut his forehead falling off a tree, diagnosed two kids with mono, begrudgingly stopped a drug addict from strangling Theo, taking the time to smirk at him while mouthing ‘you’re welcome’, then went on to perform two surgeries, eating a total of three carrots in that entire time. She relied mostly on the liquid sustainment of the cafeteria’s wannabe-coffee. Her only short breaks had been to the girls’ bathroom, where her colleagues moaned about their kids and husbands, telling her how lucky she was that she didn’t have anyone else in her life to worry about and she pretended she didn’t notice the pity in their tone, only giving them a tight lipped smile.

Her other time-off had been a quick phone call from her friend Perry, who was making sure she hadn’t forgotten about their dinner plans that night. She still had no idea how the curly haired woman had convinced her to go on a double date, a double _blind_ date with her. She was very reluctant at first but her friend knew her too well and managed to bribe her with delicious cupcakes and all kinds of sweets from her bakery. Plus, she knew this was important to the redhead; she had finally been asked out by a client she couldn’t stop babbling about for months now, a client who had insisted she bring a date for their friend as well. Between Perry’s puppy eyes and home baked goodies, Laura caved pretty fast.

Still, having to go out after the longest shift, tired and grumpy, for a possibly (probably) doomed date with a complete stranger wasn’t exactly something she could get excited about. She didn’t let her mind wander too much though as she had many patients yet to see, and she was just about to go do that when her superior, Doctor Cochrane, approached her and Theo.

“Doctors. How long have you both been here?”

“12 hours, ma’am” Theo said smugly, flashing her the toothiest smile she’d ever seen. The elder doctor looked at Laura expectantly.

“I uhm, just a few more” she avoided her eyes, biting her lip.

The doctor regarded her knowingly, humming in response before telling Theo to go scrub in for a big surgery they had coming. When Laura was about to protest, her superior stopped her.

“I know you’ve been here for 26 hours, Laura. And as much as I appreciate your dedication, you need to sleep. In a real bed, for more than 10 minutes at a time. Doctor’s orders” she added, as the girl still looked unconvinced.

“Yes, ma’am” she mumbled, defeated, and started walking away, but turned back around when her superior called her back.

“Oh and Laura? I am not supposed to tell you before tomorrow but, you got the job as attendant. Congratulations” she gave her a warm smile and walked away.

Despite her sleepless state, Laura couldn’t contain her excitement and jumped about a little, fist pumping in the air before realising what she was doing and forcing herself to calm down, glancing around her to see who noticed her goofy outburst, but catching only a couple of nurses smiling at her. She smiled back and made her way to the locker room. At least she had something to be happy about even if her blind date turned out to be a disaster, like she suspected. She didn’t let her encounter with Theo on her way out of the hospital ruin her mood either. She had to admit the tiniest part of her enjoyed seeing him squirming uncomfortably while he mumbled his congratulations and walked away without any of his usual sexist and just plain rude remarks.

She got into her car still with a happy smile on her face, calling Perry to let her know she’d be at her place in a few minutes and then blasting the Hamilton soundtrack, letting herself enjoy the slight breeze coming in from her window while singing along as loudly and as badly as she liked. She didn’t even see the truck coming full speed towards the right of her car, and when she turned all she could see was a blinding white light, followed by the darkest black she had ever known.

 

 

“Nope” Carmilla was no more than 5 feet into the house and she simply turned back on her heels and walked back out. The tall redheaded woman tried to hide her annoyance as she closed the door she had barely finished opening.

“What was wrong with this one?” she walked the leather-clad girl down the stairs and into the streets.

“I asked you for a furnished apartment”

“It was!”

The estate agent said more forcefully than her usual professionalism would allow.

“If you call two pillows and a rock garden furniture”

“It was a Japanese theme!”

“Well we’re not in Japan, are we now?”

Danny closed her eyes and breathed deeply, trying to compose herself, reminding herself that throttling a client was not a good idea, no matter how obnoxiously indifferent and ostensibly bored they were. She put on her best fake smile and guided Carmilla to their next location.

“As you can see, plenty of space. And the brick wall is very in right now”

Carmilla eyed the two-foot-tall portrait of a random dude, she suspected the owner of the dreadful open space she was standing in right now, barely listening to what the agent was saying. She glanced at the backless and seemingly horribly uncomfortable couch, in the same modern and utterly distasteful style of architecture as the rest of the place. Danny was still talking about the wonders of the apartment when the shorter girl cut her off.

“Yeah, no”

Again, she just walked out the door, the estate agent trailing behind her, trying not to roll her eyes back into her skull.

As Carmilla walked back onto the sidewalk, a gust of wind made a poster collide with her leg. She threw it back into the air but it soon came back to hit her right in the face. She groaned as she heard the woman beside her trying to hide her snickers. Grabbing the offending piece of paper, she was about to crumple it up and throw it out for good when she noticed it was actually an ad for subletting an apartment. When she looked at the address, she realised it matched the beautiful house right in front of her. Without thinking twice, she started marching towards it, ignoring Danny’s protests that a building like that would have hundreds of requests and would be impossible to get.

A few minutes and some calls later, the two women were walking into the house. It was a big space, with plenty of rooms. Carmilla was pleased to see it had a normal sized couch and a pretty big bed, both on the top list of her requirements, since how she was planning to spend her days would inevitably involve one or the other. Walking through the place, she noticed a small door leading upstairs and followed it to the roof of the building.

“A private access to the roof? And look at the view!”

She barely registered Danny’s comment, and only shortly glanced at the skyscrapers of Toronto which she could see from where she was standing, choosing to focus on the small dying plant left in a vase nearby. She polished it a little, pouring some water that had gathered from the rain in a bowl on the ground. The redhead regarded her strangely, getting more convinced than before of the girl’s insanity, before breaking the weird moment to speak.

“it’s an amazing apartment, of course, but there’s a catch: apparently they only sublet on a month-to-month basis, they had some kind of family tragedy, they didn’t really get into details, and the price is-“

“I’ll take it”

 

 

Her days went on as expected. She went to bed really late and woke up even later, spent most of her waking hours between the bed and couch, sleeping, eating, reading and drinking. A lot of drinking. She had been living in this new house for almost a week and she was quite enjoying the calm and the silence. She sipped on her newly opened beer as she made her way back to the couch. She almost had a heart attack when she turned the corner.

“Holy shit!”

“Who the frilly hell are you?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello creampuffs! How are you? I assume pretty great after that ACT II drop, am I rite? ;)  
> I was rewatching Just Like Heaven the other day and I thought it would be a cute story to base an AU on. I followed the story pretty closely but I hope you can enjoy it even if you know the film. And, even more incredibly, I already finished writing it! Which means I will 200% post a chapter ever day until ACT III drops.  
> Also I don't think I have ever read a fanfic in which Laura is the ghost and not Carmilla so, there's that.  
> Enjoy and please leave me some feedback in the comments if you do! Or even if you don't. I'm lonely.


	2. Chapter 2

“There is nothing worth stealing here! No drugs, no money, there’s barely any food – unless you were looking for cookies but that doesn’t really seem like something a thief would want. There’s bear spray but- wait, you’re not supposed to know that. Well, there is! I have bear spray and I am not afraid to use it!”

Carmilla stood there dumbstruck, staring at the tiny girl in front of her threatening her with fast words and invisible bear spray. She struggled to recompose herself, but finally she spoke.

“Okay, relax. I am not here to steal anything from you, no need for any bear spray. My name’s Carmilla. I live here”

“No, you don’t”

The girl replied matter-of-factly. She was so sure of this, Carmilla had to stop herself from laughing in her face, finding it hilarious if not quite adorable.

“Yes, I do”

“Do not!”

“Do too”

This time Carmilla couldn’t hide the amusement in her voice, nor the little smirk forming on her lips. The girl narrowed her eyes in annoyance.

“Listen cupcake, as much as I would love to keep playing playground insults with you, I have better things to do”

“Clearly”

The other scoffed, eyeing their surroundings. The coffee table had leftover food containers from the past couple of days all over it, empty beer bottles covered the floor and dirty clothes were scattered on every available surface.

“It’s none of your business what I do in my house”

Carmilla said, crossing her arms, slightly offended by this girl’s tone.

“It’s _my_ house!”

“Oh really? For all I know you broke in and are trying to convince me to let you live here as some elaborated scam or something”

“Oh yeah? And when did I have time to move all my furniture in with me?”

“What?”

“The furniture. The couch, the TV, the library, the coffee table – what did you spill on the rug?! Gosh you are a pig”

The small figure huffed in annoyance as she walked past her and towards the kitchen. Carmilla blinked a couple times, not really understanding what was going on, before following the girl.

“Hey, listen, why don’t you tell me your name and we can try to…”

She let her words die out as she looked around in the kitchen curiously. The girl was nowhere to be found, and there were no other rooms or hallways connecting the living room to where she was standing. She looked back to where she came from, frowned, then looked down at the beer still in her hand. She sighed, putting the bottle back on the table and decided to head to bed for the night. She had clearly had enough to drink.

 

 

The next morning, Carmilla woke up with a clearer head. She hadn’t left the house in days and was all alone, only drinking and reading. Her subconscious was bound to play some tricks on her. Sure, conjuring up an annoying tiny ball of rage was a strange way to go about it, but who was she to question her subconscious? She was pretty happy with her explanation as she stepped out of the shower, drying her hair with a towel before cleaning out the fogged up mirror with her hand.

“What are you still doing here, I told you to get out!”

Carmilla would never admit to a living person how high-pitched the shriek she let out was. The above-mentioned tiny ball of rage was staring back at her in the mirror, standing behind her. Or at least, she appeared to be standing behind her, but when Carmilla turned around, nobody was there.

 

 

“I am so happy you called me, Karnstein. You’ve been cooped up in that new apartment of yours for so long, I was starting to think you’d turned into a vampire. You got the looks and the nocturnal habits down already”

Laf joked as they sipped on their drink. Carmilla gave them a small smile.

“Yeah I definitely needed to get out”

“Is that the only reason you called?”

They inquired, earning a questioning look from their friend.

“it’s just, you seemed like you wanted to talk about something”, they elaborated.

Carmilla bit her lip and looked away for a moment, before finally meeting their eyes again.

“I’ve been… seeing someone”

“That’s so awesome! You know I’m really happy for you, I’ve been saying for a while now, you need to get out more. But you blow me off every time I try to set you up, I was starting to run out of girls for you to meet. But it seems you didn’t need me after all”

They winked and clinked their drink with hers.

“No, Laf, you misunderstood. She’s not there.”

The scientist stopped to think for a moment, furrowing their brows.

“You mean like, she’s emotionally unavailable? Or like, full-on out of her mind? Because that’s cool, too, you know. I mean, not ideal for a first relationship after… well, everything, but hey, if you really like her I’m sure you’ll make it work”

Carmilla let her head fall onto the table, groaning.

“You’re not listening to me, Laf. I am seeing someone who’s not there”

“Not there as in… literally not there?”

She nodded.

“You’re hallucinating a girlfriend?”

Their eyebrows shot up, their expression halfway between surprised and amused.

“I am not hallucinating a girlfriend!” 

She whispered.

“I am hallucinating a roommate”

“Is she hot?”

“She’s not real”

“That’s not a no”

Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“I feel like you’re not taking this seriously”

“Oh no, I am, I am! So let’s look at the facts here. You’re hallucinating a roommate. Perhaps you’re just lonely”

She levelled them with a glare.

“Okay fine, don’t admit that even broody mistress of the snark Carmilla Karnstein gets lonely. I’m sorry but the next guess is you’re… well…”

Carmilla raised her eyebrows in question, silently inviting them to finish their sentence.

“…needing some lady company?”

She scoffed.

“Trust me, if I wanted lady company, I wouldn’t have to make it up. And it wasn’t like that anyway, she was just some shrimp of a girl yelling at me about how messy I am”

Her friend couldn’t help but laugh out loud at that, earning another glare.

“I am sorry but you have to admit, Casper coming to tell you to clean up after yourself is kind of hilarious”

Laf recomposed themselves and went on offering hypotheses.

“There is one other plausible explanation. Were you by any chance intoxicated when this encounter occurred?”

“…Maybe”

Laf looked at her pointedly.

“Okay, yes, I had a few beers the first time I met her. But then it happened again a couple of mornings ago, and I was definitely sober, if maybe a little hungover”

Her friend looked thoughtful after that.

“I don’t necessarily have an explanation for this, other than -wait for it- you need to get out more”

Carmilla rolled her eyes, ready to hear the speech her friend’s been giving her for the past couple of years now.

“No, look, I’m serious. I don’t know if you’re lonely or bored or actually going insane but I can tell you, hiding yourself in your apartment and drinking alone is not the solution. Go out, drink with somebody else. Spending too much time with your own thoughts can be dangerous”

“Right. Go out. I’ll try that.”

 

 

It was two in the morning, a couple of days later. Carmilla was completely exhausted from yet another tiring day of drinking and lying around her house, and she could not wait to get her much needed sleep. Well, maybe not much needed since she spent half her time napping, but definitely much wanted. She sighed contently as her head hit the soft pillow, closing her eyes, ready to drift off into a dreamless sleep when a shrill voice, definitely too loud for this hour of the night, rudely interrupted her.

“Are you serious? Get off my bed! Where did you get those ugly covers anyway?”

Carmilla didn’t bother opening her eyes, she blindly took the pillow next to her and covered her right ear with it, as she was lying on her left side.

“If you must know, I bought these beautiful constellation covers myself. The previous _ugly_ Marauder’s Map ones are at the bottom of the closet, where they belong”

Laura scoffed, offended.

“And anyway, I don’t have to justify myself to a dream. Because you’re a dream. I am dreaming. Now go away”

“You are not dreaming, I am not going away and my Harry Potter covers are the best! And anyway, you’re the one who has to leave. You’re living in an apartment that doesn’t belong to you!”

Carmilla sighed deeply before finally rolling onto her back, letting go of the pillow she was holding to her head and opening her eyes to stare at the small intruder.

“Listen creampuff, I pay to live here. In fact, I pay quite a lot, to be honest. And you know why I accepted that crazy expensive price? Peace and quiet. This house seemed nice and silent and the perfect place to rest. Imagine my disappointment when I found out it was haunted! So you see, you’re not the only one here unhappy with their current situation. But you know what? I chose to embrace it. Live with the cute albeit annoying ghost and accept my apparent insanity. Drink my way through it. I suggest you find your own coping mechanism and let me sleep in peace”

The dark haired girl pulled the covers over her entire body, face included, as soon as she finished, turning on her side, away from the tiny doctor.

Laura was silent for a moment and Carmilla thought she was gone, but then she spoke again.

“So you’ve been drinking a lot, uh?”

Carmilla groaned but answered nonetheless.

“Yeah, why?”

“And are you by chance seeing or hearing things that aren’t really there?”

The dark haired girl let out something between a chuckle and a grunt.

“Boy, am I”

“Including this ghost you think is haunting this place?”

Carmilla turned back to look at her pointedly, raising her eyebrows.

“Oh, you think _I’m_ the ghost?”

Laura smiled in amusement.

“I’m not a ghost but you know what I am? A doctor. And I think yours is one of the biggest cases of self-deception I have ever seen. You’ve really convinced yourself that you actually live here legally”

Carmilla regarded her a little before turning into her pillow, closing her eyes again.

“I’m too tired for this. Goodnight Moaning Myrtle”

Laura’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped open. The nerve of this girl!

“That it’s. I’ve tried being reasonable, I’ve tried being empathetic but you’re clearly not leaving on your own so I am calling the police!”

“Be my guest, sundance” Carmilla didn’t move a simple muscle, her lack of a reaction only serving to enrage the small girl all the more. Laura went to pick up the phone on the nearby desk and gasped loudly.

“What now?”

Carmilla groaned. When she didn’t get an answer she lifted her head up for the umpteenth time, seeing Laura stare at her telephone as if it just grew a head. And then she tried to grab it. And she couldn’t. Carmilla’s eyes widened a little as she watched the tiny girl’s hands go through the object time and time again without moving it the smallest bit. She admitted, she joked about her being a ghost, but her subconscious was really selling it.

“What the… what did you do?”

Laura turned to Carmilla, who just shook her head.

“Well there’s another phone in the kitchen. Stay right there!”

Laura pointed at her and started walking out the door, slowly disappearing out of it. Literally disappearing. Carmilla blinked a few times, staring at the spot where the girl had been, but she saw and heard nothing more. She let herself fall back into her pillow, though there was no way she was going to sleep now.


	3. Chapter 3

Carmilla stood outside the office door, unsure if she should actually go in. This was insane. _She_ probably was insane. And she didn’t need anyone else to know that, she decided, as she started turning away, but right at that moment Danny Lawrence opened the door in front of her.

“Carmilla”

The redhead was clearly very surprised to see her.

“is something wrong with your house?”

She asked warily, not really eager to repeat the dreadful apartment hunting of a couple weeks before.

“No, no, the house is great. I was just, uhm, just wondering. Do you know anything about the previous tenant?”

“Oh” Danny sounded taken aback but relieved by the small inquiry.

“I know there was some kind of tragedy in the family. I think I spoke to the owner’s dad? He was quite shaken and I didn’t ask for more. Honestly, I didn’t need to”

“So you think she’s dead?”

“She?”

“Well, I assume it’s a girl. For the furniture, you know, but I might be wrong” she quickly tried to correct herself, not wanting to seem suspicious.

“I don’t know, really. Could be. But given the monthly lease, maybe she’s just out of town, who knows” she shrugged.

Carmilla nodded in understanding but remained silent.

“Did you need anything else?” Danny asked politely.

“Oh uhm, no. Thank you”

The redhead gave her a tight lipped smile and went back into her office, closing the door behind her and leaving Carmilla in the hallway outside.

“Psst, sexy lady”

Carmilla rolled her eyes and groaned internally. She did not have time to let down a random dude misguidedly hitting on her.

“Hey, you with the ghost problem”

That caught her attention as she turned around to see a puppy of a man sitting in the only occupied chair in front of Danny’s office. She took a step closer to him.

“What did you just say?”

He grinned knowingly.

“So I was right. You do have a ghost in your house!”

“Shh, keep your voice down, beefcake”

She put a hand on his mouth and quickly sat next to him, glancing around them but there was barely anybody there and no one was paying attention to them. She slowly took her hand off of him.

“What do you know about this stuff?”

 

 

“So what is it we’re dealing here: ectoplasm, somniferous ether? I have a killer séance book if you’re into communication”

“Communication is really not a problem here” Carmilla told him, looking around her at the many shelves of books surrounding them. She had let this strange bro-dude by the name of Kirsch convince her to follow him into his bookstore of the supernatural – that was the literal name of the shop – with the hope of finding something out that would tell her that her mind had not yet completely forsaken her.

“Cool. Awesome! I know what you need. Hang on” he gave her his dopey grin again and started running around the library, gathering books and dumping them in Carmilla’s arms.

 

 

She ended up going home with over ten books about enchantments and invoking spirits and plenty other things guaranteed to give Laf mocking ammunition for years to come if they ever found out. Not to mention her current position, sat on the floor in the middle of a candle circle, holding one of her latest purchases and about to try to summon a ghost. What had her life become.

“Spirit… appear. Spirit come near. Spirit be here. Spirit appear”

She read out loud, feeling her dignity leave her body more and more with every word. She waited a bit but nothing happened.

“Spirit…”

She started again, but sighed right afterwards.

“Oh screw it, this is ridiculous”

“It really is”

Camilla jumped back a little when she saw Laura standing in front of her, with her arms crossed and a smirk painted on her face.

“Worked though, didn’t it?”

“Hardly. I just came to tell you to turn off those candles before you burn my rug”

Carmilla rolled her eyes but did as she was told.

“Listen, cupcake…”

“Would you stop calling me pastry names already! My name’s Laura”

The dark haired girl smirked at her but continued speaking.

“Listen, _Laura_ , I think we got off on the wrong foot”

“Well yeah, you broke into my house”

“I did not…” Carmilla took a deep breath, “I did not break in here. Just, humour me for a second. What have you been doing lately? How do you spend your days other than talking to me? Have you talked with anyone else recently?”

Laura seemed taken aback by all the questions.

“I-I talk to people! Plenty of people. And I certainly do more with my days than you do!” she answered defensively.

“Hey, I’m not accusing you of anything here, I’m just trying to help you accept…” Carmilla trailed off, biting her lower lip.

“Accept what?”

“That you might be, you know… not quite… alive”

Carmilla dared to look back at the tiny girl, who didn’t seem sad or enraged, just pensive.

“I’m not dead”

“Cupcake”

Carmilla started walking towards her but Laura just walked backwards, shaking her head.

“I am not dead, Carmilla, I think I would know if I were dead!”

The dark haired girl stopped walking and looked down at Laura’s waist, motioning for her to do the same. When she did, Laura noticed she was standing in the middle of her dining room table. Not on it. Not under it. IN It, with her legs below it and her stomach above it, her waist just disappearing through it. She looked up at the other girl for the first time not with anger, but with fear in her eyes.

“What is happening to me?”

“You’re dead”

“I am NOT dead!” Laura yelled, pushing Carmilla’s chest with both her hands. Or at least, that’s what she was trying to do. But she walked right through the girl and out a window a couple of feet behind her.

Carmilla quickly turned around to look out the window, but saw nothing out of the ordinary.

“Rest in peace”

She said to the busy streets of Toronto.

“I’m not dead”

Laura was standing in her living room again, looking unimpressed.

“Jesus, cupcake, _I_ might be soon if you keep doing that”

Carmilla gasped holding a hand to her heart, turning around to look at the small girl, who simply rolled her eyes.

“Look, I don’t want you dead. I just want you gone”

Carmilla took a step closer to the ghost.

“I pay rent. I am not leaving. End of discussion”

Laura stared back at her, walking even closer, their noses almost touching.

“Fine!”

“Fine!”

 

 

And they both stayed true to their words. They did not leave. Carmilla tried to go about her days as normally as she possibly could but Laura’s presence had become more, well, present than ever. She made it a point to literally haunt the other girl every single moment of the day, probably hoping to annoy her into leaving. Which, had Carmilla been less stubborn, and not having the great advantage of being the _alive_ tenant, she might have caved. Laura had even started following her into the bathroom in the morning, forcing her to shower in her underwear.

“Enjoying the show, cutie?”

“Oh please, don’t flatter yourself. I’m a doctor, I’ve seen lots of naked bodies”

“Well I hope you don’t ogle your patients the same way. That would be very unprofessional”

Carmilla winked at her and Laura simply rolled her eyes. That was her play in this competition the two had going on: Laura imposed her constant presence, Carmilla offered her constant flirting, and nicknames, and an even messier mess than she usually would leave; basically anything that made the other girl’s nose scrunch up so hilariously and yet quite endearingly.

“Wow, another beer. Be careful, you won’t be able to maintain your figure if you keep drinking like that” Laura commented while sitting in the fridge as Carmilla took out a beverage, the other girl only rolling her eyes but ignoring her otherwise.

She kept trying to ignore her when Laura positioned herself right by Carmilla’s ear and started rapping Hamilton songs into her ears as she was trying to read her favourite Camus book. After a few minutes of endless singing, the dark haired girl silently got up and walked into the bedroom, leaving Laura with a satisfied smirk on her face, which was quickly wiped off when she saw Carmilla return with enormous headphones on her head, getting back to her previous reading position. The ghost huffed in annoyance but decided not to give up and started jumping up and down and making faces at the girl just as she was trying to read. She went so far as to stand in the couch where Carmilla was lying, so that she would be effectively straddling her if she had an actual body, and put her head right into the Camus book, startling Carmilla. Laura burst into a fit of laughter as Carmilla closed the book with a thud, narrowing her eyes at her.

“That’s it, I’ve been patient but this – this has got to stop. You are going into that damn light if I have to push you myself.”


	4. Chapter 4

Carmilla really meant it when she said she would get Laura out, one way or another. Getting rid of an annoying spirit just proved to be a lot more difficult than she anticipated. She had tried calling an exorcist, who had simply thrown some holy water and rice around, which backfired since Laura didn’t stop bugging her until she cleaned it up. A group of Chinese witches lit up half her house, setting off the smoke alarm and leaving behind a smell of dead woodland that no scented candle seemed to be able to take out. She even found actual ghostbusters, or, well, idiots in costumes pretending to be ghostbusters who took out a small pyramid in which they swore they trapped the evil spirit. Laura laughed for two days after that.

Carmilla was starting to feel desperate. This wasn’t something you could simply google. I mean, you could, but she had seen the results and she had had enough. She did have one last idea, as ridiculous as it seemed even to her. One last resort. What’s the worst that could happen?

“Aren’t you going to… do something?”

“Just give me a second scary hott- lady” Kirsch quickly corrected himself, sitting on Carmilla’s couch as she sat on the armchair to his left.

“Oh come on, if he could see or hear me he would’ve done something else in the past twenty minutes other than sit there, eat your pizza and drink your beer. Face it, Carmilla, for some incomprehensibly annoying reason, you’re the only one who can see me”

“Oh yeah she’s here alright” Kirsch suddenly said, grinning as usual, and both girls turned to look at him.

Laura ran up and leaned down a little to be at his eye level.

“Can you see me?”

She asked hopefully.

“Definitely a presence”

She sighed, rolling her eyes and standing back up straight.

“A presence. How original”

“And she’s definitely feisty. Hostile. Wants you gone.”

“On second thought, I like him”

Carmilla glared at Laura and Kirsch followed her eyes to a spot right in front of him.

“Is she there? That is so cool, bro” he pointed and smiled again, unknowingly looking right at Laura.

“Yeah, astonishing. Now how do I get her to leave?”

“You don’t. You should move though.”

“I definitely like him” Laura was smiling now, too.

“What? Why?”

Carmilla was indignant. She had little hope bringing Kirsch in would accomplish anything but she never expected him to take Laura’s side.

“There is a ghost and she is mad at you. Do you need any other reason?”

The ghost in question smiled smugly at the other girl, who glared at her some more.

“I mean, this place isn’t even that great”

“What?” both girls turned to look at him, and then to each other when they realised they spoke in unison.

“Yes it is”

“it’s got a roof”

“And a view”

“And a fireplace”

Laura and Carmilla met each other’s eyes again but quickly averted their gazes. Kirsch looked slightly confused, mildly interested.

“Whatever, dude. You got any more of that beer?”

Carmilla walked to the kitchen with Kirsch in tow. She handed him another bottle, which he leisurely sipped.

“So that’s it then? Move out, that’s your advice?”

“I think it’s great advice”

“Oh, shut up Laura”

The ghost made faces at her and Carmilla did the same.

“What’s happening?”

“She’s being a child. She can’t really expect me to leave a perfectly good home just because the dead past owner can’t let go of it!”

The two girls started glaring at each other again.

“I told you, I am not dead!”

“If you aren’t dead, then what are you? _Where_ are you?”

“I… I don’t know” Laura deflated, forcing Carmilla to soften a little as well.

“Wait, she doesn’t think she’s dead?”

Kirsch had been following the exchange as best as he could, only able to see and hear half of it.

“Yeah, talk about being in denial, right?”

“Actually, she might be right”

“What now?”

“I am?”

“I’ve never seen anything like you two have got going. It’s always a book flying here and there, doors swinging opened, a strange howling in the night. But this” he gestured with his hand between the two, guessing where Laura was by following Carmilla’s eyes “this is a real actual conversation. She’s alive, dude”

Laura smiled smugly.

“Told you”

“You, on the other hand”

He walked closer to Carmilla, who eyed him cautiously,

“You got the darkest aura I have ever seen. It’s consuming you. You have got to let people in”

He put a hand on her shoulder.

“And to do that, you’ve got to let her go”

“I’m trying here! I don’t know if you’ve noticed but she isn’t exactly cooperating”

“Not her. Her” he said, pointing to her heart.

Carmilla’s eyes widened before she fixated them on the ground.

“I don’t want to talk about that”

“What happened? Did you have a bad break up? Is that why you just spend your days moping around and drinking your weigh in beer?”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it” she repeated, still staring at the ground as she stormed out.

Kirsch looked around, unsure where Laura was.

“Yo ghost-lady, whatever you said to her, give her a break. It’s not easy losing someone you love. I’m sorry for your loss” Kirsch yelled out that last part in the direction where Carmilla went, before finishing his beer and leaving the house.

 

 

“I’m sorry”

Laura found Carmilla sitting on the edge of their roof, looking at the night sky. The girl didn’t turn or give any sign that she heard her.

“I realise now that we’ve been so busy trying to kick each other out that we don’t really know much about each other.”

Still nothing.

“I got this place for the roof. I think I wanted to turn it into a garden, eventually. I am not sure, everything’s a little fuzzy”

She frowned.

“Anyway, I really am sorry, I had no idea. You know, people who experience loss often find it helpful to talk about it-“

“I don’t want to talk about it!” Carmilla finally turned around.

“Anger works too” Laura said, raising her arms in surrender.

“So… who was Kirsch talking about?”

Carmilla raised her eyebrows at her as if to say ‘seriously?’

“I know, I know, you don’t want to talk about it. But if we’re going to get to know each other better, we have to start somewhere”

The other girl sighed in exasperation.

“Her name was Ell, she was my fiancée and my preferred coping mechanism isn’t talking, and surprisingly it isn’t anger either”

She got up and started walking away, Laura quickly following.

 

 

“This is not a good idea”

Laura stood in front of the bar with her arms opened, trying to stop the other girl from going in.

“Well I happen to think it’s a wonderful idea. How would you know anyway, have you ever even been in a bar?” she asked, walking inside.

“I have…” Laura mumbled.

“Well if it isn’t my favourite vampire!”

“Laf” Carmilla greeted her friend, rolling her eyes but hugging them nonetheless.

“So glad you left your rabbit hole! Here, let me introduce you. This is JP, Mel, …” they went on listing a few other names that Carmilla didn’t even bother registering. She could feel Laura’s presence right next to her and was resisting the urge to turn around and enjoy the undoubtedly scrunched up face the girl was making.

“What are you drinking?” Laf asked.

“Coffee” Laura answered.

“I’ll have a Scotch” Carmilla smirked.

“Carmilla!”

“Make it a double” she added, staring at Laura as she did so, her smirk only widening before she inevitably had to take her eyes off what everyone else saw as an empty space. She took the drink the barman offered her.

“You are so infuriating!” Laura said, trying to get the drink off her hands but failing miserably. Carmilla watched her struggle with a quirked eyebrow and an amused smile, lifting her drink away from the small girl just to piss her off a little more.

“Uhm Carmilla? You okay?”

Laf asked her, concern in their voice.

“Just peachy” she answered, making a show of downing her drink in front of a seething Laura.

“You can’t just drink your feelings away, you know”

“Watch me” she motioned to the barman for another drink.

“Hey so, how’s it going with that ‘roommate’ of yours?” they made quotation marks around the word with their fingers.

Carmilla quickly glanced at Laura, then back at Lafontaine.

“I called an exorcist, a Chinese witch and some ghostbusters”

Laf’s eyebrows shot up.

“Did that work?”

“Nope”

Carmilla downed another drink.

“On an empty stomach. You’re really going to regret that tomorrow morning” the ghost mumbled.

The dark haired girl looked at her challengingly, ordering another drink. When the glass arrived, she went to pick it up, under the scrutinising gaze of her ghostly roommate.

“And what are you going to do about it?”

Laura huffed at the smirking girl. Laf followed Carmilla’s eyes, frowning at her words.

“Wait, are you seeing her right now?”

Their friend broke her staring contest with Laura to look at them, seeing the worry in their eyes.

“Look, Laf, I know this sounds insane but she’s here, okay? And I can’t make her leave so I’m just kind of, living with it I guess”

Lafontaine took the glass from her hand and set it back onto the table. They then proceeded to order a bottle of water and gave it to Carmilla when it arrived.

“I think you should go home. Drink this. Get some sleep. And maybe tomorrow get some fresh air. Talk to people. Real people. Talk to me, I’m just a phone call away. I’m worried about you”

“Right. Of course, I will. Bye, Laf” she took the offered bottle and started walking away, Lafontaine calling her back, not wanting her to take this so badly, but she was already gone.

 

She stormed off to the nearest park, finding an empty bench she could sit on, to get some fresh air as her friend suggested. She sipped on her water and almost spit it out when she saw the tiny girl sitting right next to her.

“My gosh Laura, could you leave me alone for one moment? I get that you’re really dedicated to this haunting thing, but I just…”

She stopped talking when she noticed the ghost wasn’t looking at her, but down at her own feet, a sad expression on her face.

“I can’t”

“You can’t what?”

Laura finally turned to look at her, and Carmilla noticed the tears starting to form in her eyes.

“I can’t leave you alone. Because when I do… it’s like I don’t exist. I can’t remember anything other than speaking to you. My gosh. Maybe I am dead after all”

“Hey, don’t. I’m sorry I said you’re dead. You’re probably not dead. Possibly not dead”

She tried her best to comfort her. Laura gave her a sad smile.

“I just keep thinking, if I could remember anything, maybe I would remember why I am here, like this. I only know my name’s Laura and I think I was a doctor. But that’s it”

“Yeah but how are you going to…” Carmilla looked at her face and finally understood.

“Are you seriously asking me to help you right now?”

“Look, you have two possibilities here. One, a woman has come into your life in a very unconventional way and now she happens to need your assistance”

“Right. What’s the second one?”

“That you’re a crazy lady sitting in an empty park, alone, in the middle of the night, talking to yourself”

Carmilla looked around her.

“You know what, upon further consideration, I think I will help you.”


	5. Chapter 5

They started the search for Laura’s identity in the only place they knew for sure she had been: their building. Although after going door to door to ask if anybody knew her, it was starting to seem like she didn’t even live there. Most people thought the apartment was vacant, one guy thought a man lived there, which offended Laura slightly but amused Carmilla greatly, and the few people who ever saw her come in or out knew absolutely nothing about her.

“Seems like I was a ghost even before I was dead” Laura commented gloomily as they came to a stop in front of one of the last doors, the one to the apartment right above Laura’s. Carmilla knocked and soon after a young blonde girl came to open the door, greeting her with a bright smile.

“Hello! How can I help you?”

“Finally, somebody who looks normal! Maybe we were friends!” Laura said hopefully.

“Uhm, hi. My name’s Carmilla, I just moved into the apartment below yours”

“Hello Carmilla, I’m Elsie! It’s very nice to meet you. Do you want to come in?”

“No, thank you, I just have a quick question. Did you happen to know the woman who lived in the apartment before me?”

“Oh, that short one? I saw her a couple times, yeah. She was quite antisocial though”

“Okay so maybe we weren’t the best of friends…” Laura commented.

“Kind of like a cat lady, but without any cats you know?”

Carmilla chuckled loudly at that.

“Believe me, I know”

She glanced at Laura who was completely unamused at this point.

“Okay, we’re done. Say goodbye now”

“Thank you for your help, Elsie” Carmilla went to walk away but the blonde called her back.

“Oh hey, since I got you here. I kind of have a window stuck that just won’t get open and I was wondering if you could help me with it?”

“Uuh…” Carmilla stammered.

“Un-believable” Laura looked at the girl with what could almost be described as disgust now.

“What?” Carmilla asked her.

“What?” Elsie shot back, confused, turning the girl’s attention back on herself.

“She’s hitting on you”

“You could try forcing it open with like a screwdriver or maybe even a crowbar if you happened to have one” Carmilla tried to get out of this awkward exchange.

“You know, I tried, but to no avail. Maybe if somebody stronger would give it a try…” Elsie let her eyes wander to Carmilla’s arms, taking her time before looking her back in the eyes.

“I can’t believe this girl”

“I… you know, I would love to help, but I have dinner plans, so…”

“I got dessert” Elsie replied, biting her lip.

“Oh my gosh shoot me now” Laura groaned.

“Thanks but I really have to go now. Nice to meet you though”

“You too, Carmilla. Come back anytime” she winked before closing the door.

 

 

“Can you believe the nerve of that girl? She was practically throwing herself at you!”

Laura huffed as they walked back to their house. Carmilla just shrugged.

“Come on, are you saying it didn’t bother you? She was being crass and completely forward!”

“Some people like those qualities”

“Some people have no self-respect”

Laura answered. They were standing in front of their door now but they were not going in.

“Shoot”

“What?”

“I locked myself out”

Carmilla sighed.

“There’s a spare key under the fire extinguisher”

The girl moved to retrieve said key as Laura continued.

“And the whole window shtick was frankly quite tasteless; playing on the dumb blonde stereotype much? Not to mention that dessert comment. Talk about desperate.”

“Why is this bothering you so much?” Carmilla asked as they walked into the house, towards the kitchen.

“It’s not, it’s just… anti-feminist is all” Laura grumbled.

“A young, independent woman living alone, going after what she wants with determination and self-confidence? Sounds like the definition of feminist to me”

“Shut up, don’t try to make me like her”

Carmilla chuckled, opening one drawer after the other to find a bottle opener for the beer she just took out of the fridge.

“Hey, what’s this?” she retrieved a small piece of paper and showed it to Laura.

“It looks like an address. I can’t quite make it out, is that a 5 or a 6?”

“it’s a… 5. No a 6. No definitely a 5. It’s a 5”

“5 it is. Let’s go find out who you are.”

 

 

They drove to a stop in a very nice neighbourhood, parking in front of one of many seemingly identical houses, one of which was holding a clue to Laura’s past. Carmilla walked up to the house in front of them, checking one last time to make sure the address was the right one, before ringing the bell. A middle aged man answered the door.

“Hello?”

“Hi, my name’s Carmilla. You don’t know me but I was wondering if you happened to know a young girl, in her twenties, about 5’1”

“5’2. And a half” Laura corrected her.

“I mean, 5’2 and a half”

The man took in her appearance, from her leather jacket to her combat boots, back to her black ray-bans.

“Who are you? Are you a PI?” he said in a panic.

“Did my wife put you up to this? What does she know? I’ll pay you. I’ll pay you double, just…” he looked inside the house, where a woman’s voice could be heard calling out.

“Come back at 6, I’ll have a check ready” and with that he slammed the door in her face.

Something halfway between a smile and a smirk took over Carmilla’s face as she took in this new information. Laura’s reaction was more along the lines of shock and revulsion.

“That was something” Carmilla commented amused as they made their way back to the car.

“What? You don’t really think I had an affair with _him_ , do you?!”

“Our little investigation seems to be pointing in that direction, cupcake” she kept smirking.

“Well, it’s wrong! We’re wrong! There has to be another explanation. He’s old and married and… I think I’m gay” Laura furrowed her brows as if she was realising that herself just now.

Carmilla’s eyebrows shot up.

“Congrats on coming out, then. Still, how else do you explain that?” she pointed back at the house before opening Laura’s car-door, gaining a small smile from the girl.

“I…” something dawned on Laura and her face fell “maybe I was a slut. I mean, I hate that term but if I’m gay and I was sleeping with a man who’s older, married, and frankly unattractive even for a straight girl’s standards, that must be what I was. A social climber. I’m a floozy.” She realized in horror.

“I seriously doubt that. I don’t think dying, or whatever happened to you, could change your personality completely. And I don’t think any version of you, dead or alive, would sleep with that guy. Plus, look on the bright side”

Laura looked at her questioningly.

“At 6 o’clock, I’m coming into some money” Carmilla winked at her, driving away, as Laura rolled her eyes.

Behind them, a beautiful green door opened as a girl came out to water her flowers, red hair blowing in the wind.

 

 

“Carm, wait, can you stop here?”

Laura asked as they drove by a busy side of town.

“Sure, cupcake” she did as she was told and they both got off the car, Carmilla following Laura until she came to a stop in front of a fancy looking restaurant.

“I know this place”

“You do? Good, okay. Let’s go inside” Carmilla held the door open for Laura, not even thinking about how strange that might look to the outside world.

“Woah, you treated yourself well, didn’t you?” The dark haired girl observed, taking in the luxurious restaurant they had just walked in.

“I never ate in here” Laura said, gaining a puzzled look from the other girl.

“I always walked by this place and wished to come here someday but I guess someday never came” she explained, wistfully.

Carmilla was about to say something when a loud crash in the middle of the room distracted them both, as a waiter hit the floor, not getting up.

“Doctor! We need a doctor in here!” one of the other waiters, kneeling before the unconscious man, yelled out.

“I’m a doctor” Laura stated.

“Yeah. You’re also a ghost” Carmilla whispered back.

“But you’re not”

Carmilla looked at the girl and finally understood what she meant.

“Oh no. No way” she shook her head vehemently.

“Carm, he might die”

The dark haired girl looked at the man lying on the ground, surrounded by customers who didn’t know what to do, and then looked back at Laura and her pleading eyes. She sighed in defeat, already walking towards the commotion.

“Let me through! Let me through!”

She found her way to the side of the unconscious man and unbuttoned his shirt, following the ghost’s instructions.

“What are you doing?” the other waiter, still kneeling before the man, asked her.

“I’m uh… feeling for any bloating? In between his ribs?” she looked at Laura for confirmation as she was saying this and the other girl nodded.

“Tell them you’ll need a bottle of vodka and a paring knife”

Carmilla repeated the instructions and the objects were soon handed to her.

“What’s wrong with him?” The waiter asked.

“It’s a tension pneumothorax” Laura answerd.

“It’s a tension pneumomatrix” Carmilla tried.

“Pneumathrotax? Pneumathurman?” She was receiving puzzled looks from every bystander so she gave up.

“The air is escaping out of the lungs into his chest” she repeated Laura’s words carefully, barely registering them herself. She kept feeling the man’s chest, as the girl said, only stopping when she found a space between two ribs.

“Okay. Got it. What now?” she whispered to Laura, still getting strange looks from everyone around her.

“Take the vodka, pour some on that spot and then make a small incision with the knife”

“You know what, could I have some more space guys, please?” she asked, and people started stepping back.

“Make a what now?” Carmilla whispered, half terrified.

“It’s just a small cut, to allow the air to escape from his lungs”

Carmilla gulped.

“I uh, I really don’t do well with blood”

“There won’t be any blood. Just, trust me, okay? Pour the vodka and make the incision”

Carmilla quickly glanced at Laura before nodding to herself. She took the bottle of vodka, poured some on the man’s chest and then a generous amount into her own mouth, gaining yet again sceptical looks from around the room. She then proceeded to make a small cut and use the bottle’s pourer to keep it open, and suddenly the man before her started breathing again. Everybody cheered, Laura beamed at her and Carmilla couldn’t help but smile herself.

“Hey, where’s the nearest hospital?”

She asked the waiter after he shook her hand to thank her.

“It’s The Silas Hospital, a few blocks from here”

“Silas. Sounds familiar” Laura said.

“Thank you”

They walked out the restaurant and started walking back to the car.

“I never saved a life before. That was…”

“Exhilarating, isn’t it? I mean, I thought I was a doctor but I really wasn’t sure but then when I saw that man lying there I just knew what to do, I knew it!”

Carmilla smiled at the small girl’s contagious happiness.

“And now we know where you worked, too. Want to go meet your colleagues?”


	6. Chapter 6

“I work here”

Laura stated as soon as they set foot into the hospital lobby.

“I definitely work here!” she repeated excitedly.

“That’s Alice from reception! And those are Karen and Jim. They’re together and they think nobody knows but I mean, look at them, they’re as subtle as a brick” she giggled.

“It’s all coming back to me now! This is it. This is where I belong.”

Carmilla smiled at her and went to the receptionist to ask what she knew of Laura.

“Laura? Laura Hollis?”

“Hollis… that’s my name” Laura said incredulously.

“Yeah, Laura Hollis” Carmilla confirmed.

The receptionist made a strange face.

“Give me a moment”

She said, walking away to talk to somebody.

“Oh-oh”

“Oh-oh? What oh-oh?”

“She had that tone and that face. The ones you use when you don’t want to be the one to deliver bad news”

The receptionist came back and gave Carmilla her best smile, though it came off a bit forced, when she told her to go to the third floor and ask for Doctor Cochrane.

“This can’t be good. Doctor Cochrane was my superior and my mentor, they wouldn’t have you speak to her if it weren’t serious”

Laura said as they got into the elevator.

“When we get there, tell her you’re my girlfriend”

“What!? Why?”

“She won’t tell you anything if she doesn’t think we were close. Plus, if she doesn’t believe you, we’ll know I’m wrong about being gay”

“I saw the way you look at me when I get out of the shower in the morning. You’re into the ladies” Carmilla smirked.

“It was _one time_ …” Laura groaned as they got out of the elevator.

“Miss Karnstein?”

“Yes, hi. Doctor Cochrane?”

Carmilla shook the Doctor’s extended hand.

“That’s correct. I hear you’re inquiring about Miss Hollis?”

“Yeah, I am. I’ve just, been out of town and I haven’t heard from her in a while so I thought I’d check here”

The Doctor hummed in response.

“And what was your relationship with her?”

“I’m her girlfriend”

Doctor Cochrane’s eyebrows shot up and for a second Carmilla worried Laura really wasn’t out at her workplace.

“Something wrong?”

“I’m just surprised is all. Laura spent most of her waking hours in this hospital and I’ve never heard her say anything about a girlfriend. Or even a date for that matter”

“She’s speaking in the past tense” Laura noticed, her heart sinking. Carmilla wanted to look at her and comfort her but she knew it would look weird and she needed the Doctor to trust her right now. Or at least, not to think she was an insane person with a habit of talking to herself.

“It was a pretty new thing. We went out a couple times. I live in her apartment…”

“Carm!”

“…building. We met doing laundry” she improvised.

“And nobody told you about the accident?”

“I’m afraid not” Carmilla answered after a moment of processing what she just heard. The Doctor sighed sadly and started recounting the events. Laura was silent. Hearing the simple word ‘accident’ had triggered some memories that she would have rather stay hidden, as she relived those dreadful moments. She closed her eyes, hearing the horns of the cars around her and seeing that blinding white light again. When she opened them, suddenly she wasn’t in the hallway anymore, but in one of the adjacent rooms. One with a bed in it, and a patient in the bed. A petite girl with honey brown hair.

“That’s you” Carmilla spoke from the doorway.

“That is really you” she entered the room, walking closer to Laura’s body, looking at the ghost with a smile on her face.

“What’s wrong? We found you! You’re alive!”

“Am I though?” Laura kept her eyes trained on her own face, lying there unconscious.

“I have been here for three months. That is a long time. It’s a persistent coma. I’m not waking up any time soon”

“You don’t know that. I mean you- you look good. You have no scars, no broken bones. You look beautiful” Carmilla said, looking at Laura’s sleeping face while the ghost was studying hers, finding no trace of dishonesty. If ghosts could blush, Laura certainly would have. But she could not, so she shook herself out of it and back into her crazy reality.

“So what now?”

Laura looked at her puzzled.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we found you. How do we put you back into you?” She asked, motioning between the two versions of the short girl.

“I… don’t know. Maybe if I…” Laura walked closer to her sleeping self, climbing onto the bed and effectively disappearing into her own body. After a few seconds she poked her head out.

“Is it working?”

“I don’t see any changes, no”

“Let me try again”

She tried wiggling her arms and legs, focusing really hard on feeling them, feeling the bed beneath them and the wires in her arms, the tube in her mouth, but she felt nothing.

“This is silly. My body and my spirit don’t seem to have any kind of connection anymore."

She went back to standing next to the window.

“Turn around”

“What?”

“I want to try something, turn around”

Carmilla repeated. Laura regarded her warily but did as she was told. Soon after, she felt something tickling her right hand. Like it was being held up by somebody else, and a thumb was lightly touching it. She then felt fingers tracing something on her palm.

“C… U…” She furrowed her brows, “P… C… Cupcake. Seriously, Carm?”

She turned around and saw the other girl holding her hand in hers, smirking at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back.

“See? You’re still in there. Or, well, you’re out here but, still connected to yourself somehow. Wow, this is really confusing”

Laura gave her a small smile but it fell as soon as her eyes landed on the machinery next to the bed.

“The machines don’t seem to agree”

“Machines can be wrong”

“My training tells me they’re not”

“How does your training explain this conversation exactly?”

There was a light knock on the door and Doctor Cochrane stood just outside the room.

“I’m sorry to interrupt Miss Karnstein, but I have to go and I can’t leave you here unattended”

“Of course” Carmilla let go of Laura’s hand and made her way to the door. She turned around with a questioning look when the ghost didn’t follow her.

“I’m staying here. Now that I’ve finally found myself, I can’t just leave”

Carmilla knew she couldn’t speak up with Doctor Cochrane still waiting by the door, but Laura anticipated what she was going to say anyway.

“I am sure, really. Don’t worry about me. Thank you for everything you’ve done for me. It’s meant a lot.”

Carmilla smiled sadly.

“Goodbye, Laura”

“Bye, Carm”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, Laura's not dead! Not completely, at least. And not yet, who knows what might happen.  
> Thank you so much for the lovely comments and all the kudos on this little fic! They warm my cold, cold heart. As a reward, and to make up for the fact that this chapter was a bit short, I shall upload the new chapter early tomorrow; also because I am *drum roll please* graduating university in the afternoon. Exciting times. ;)  
> xx


	7. Chapter 7

Laura looked at Carmilla’s retreating figure with a mix of sadness and fear. Not only was the girl the only person who could see or hear her but, and she would never admit this out loud, not even with nobody being able to hear her, she had grown quite fond of the broody stranger. She wasn’t as unaffected and detached as she liked to think she was. She had actually been extremely helpful to Laura, not only in the practical task of finding out about her past but in keeping her hopes up and her mind too occupied to focus on the worst case scenarios of her situation.

When Carmilla was finally out of her sight, Laura released a breath she didn’t know she was holding, happily noticing how she didn’t disappear even though she was technically alone now. She decided to explore her old workplace, see how life had changed since she left, hoping to find out something more about her possible recovery.

“Hey, who was that?”

She overheard Natalie, one of the nurses, ask her colleague Sarah Jane.

“That is apparently Laura Hollis’ girlfriend. I know right?”

She added that last part as Natalie’s eyes widened in incredulousness.

“When did she get the time to go out and find a girl like that? She barely took the time to sleep and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her eat not standing up”

SJ simply shrugged.

“I am just glad she had someone, you know. Even if it wasn’t for long. At least for a while, she got to know what life was really about”

Both nurses went back to their business after that, leaving a thoughtful Laura behind. She shook herself out of it, walking through the wall of her would-have-been office, to find none other than her obnoxious misogynistic co-worker, Theo, occupying it. He was casually sitting at his desk, feet on the table, bragging on the phone about something he probably hadn’t even done himself. Laura rolled her eyes.

“I guess you ended up getting my job, after all. Congratulations.”

“Yeah, I earned it”

Laura scoffed, even though she knew the reply wasn’t really directed to her.

“You got my job, you got my office. Do you even care that I have been in a coma for the past three months?”

“I know, it’s been great. Wait a second, I have someone on the other line”

He rolled his eyes as his assistant told him something.

“Couldn’t anyone else take care of this?”

Theo actually wined into the phone. Un-believable. Laura wished she would wake up just to wipe that smug little expression from his face. He hung up on his assistant, going back to his personal call and blatantly ignoring the fact that he had patients possibly dying under his care right now. Laura left the room, unable to stand his presence even when he couldn’t even perceive hers.

She walked through a storage closet and saw her colleagues Karen and Jim passionately kissing against a stack of paper towels. She smirked, shaking her head.

When she walked back into her room she found a pleasant surprise.

“Perry!”

Laura smiled, running to stand next to her own body, opposite Perry.

“Perr, can you hear me?”

She waited a bit, her expression deflating slightly, even though she didn’t really expect her friend to see her.

“I guess not”

“I brought you this”

The redhead took a small pastry box out of her purse. Laura could almost feel her stomach grumbling at the mere sight of it, but when the box opened, it revealed only a stuffed version of a little cupcake.

“My boss says I can’t keep bringing you actual sweets if you just let them go to waste”

She playfully reprimanded Laura, her smile kind and sad at the same time.

“So I brushed up on my knitting and made a pact with her: I will give you a real treat for every stuffed one you manage to collect while in here”

Perry glanced at Laura’s bedside table and the tiny girl noticed only now that it was covered in a variety of cute little desserts. Her friend added the latest one to the collection.

“You better wake up soon or we might go out of business to make good on that promise”

Perry’s smile fell a little as tears started to form in her eyes. She swiftly wiped them away when she heard a knock on the door.

“Excuse me, miss…”

“Perry”

“Right. I am Theo Straka, this floor’s attendant. I was told Mr Hollis would be here?”

“Right here”

Laura’s heart skipped a beat as a built man made his way from behind Theo towards Perry, handing her one of two coffee cups he was carrying.

“Dad!”

Laura smiled at him, standing next to him.

“Dad I am right here!”

She tried to grab his hand but to no avail.

“Mr Hollis, sir. May I speak with you privately for a moment?”

Theo glanced at Perry. Sherman Hollis followed his eyes, giving the red-head who was about to go for the door a small smile, before looking back at the doctor.

“Perry’s family. You can say whatever you need to say in front of her”

The doctor hesitated for a moment.

“As you wish. You must know, Mr Hollis, that Laura was a great asset to this hospital, one of our best doctors even in her young age”

“And I have always been very proud of her because of that”

“Right. And, you see, because of that we have taken some… extraordinary measures, to make her feel more comfortable. But there is one thing we haven’t taken into account thus far that we just can no longer ignore”

Mr Hollis and Perry both looked at the doctor expectantly.

“When we come to work here we are asked to fill some release forms”

“Oh no”

Laura exhaled, suddenly understanding where this conversation was going.

“With standard questions, you know, opinions on abort, transplants. One of the questions was about artificially prolonged life.”

“No, no, no no no”

“I’m afraid your daughter was against it”

Laura went to stand between Theo and her father.

“Was, I _was_ against it, but I am definitely more than okay with it now, dad, please!”

She looked at her father pleadingly, to no avail.

“Doctor Straka, are you suggesting what I think you are?”

“I am not suggesting anything, sir, I am simply telling you things as they are. We are not legally bound to keep Laura here any longer if she shows no sign of recovery. You could move her to another facility, but I am not aware of any close one capable of the level of care she needs. Not to mention the cost would be-“

“That’s enough! I would like to be left alone with my daughter now, please”

“Of course. I will just leave this here for you to sign when you’re ready”

Theo left some paper work on the table at the foot of the bed and walked away.

“I will give you two some space”

Perry stood up from her sit next to the bed.

“Perry, you know I didn’t mean you”

“I know, Mr Hollis, I know. Thank you, but I should go anyway. Bye, Laura”

She touched Laura’s shoulder before leaving. Ghost Laura instinctively mimicked her action. She saw it happening and yet she didn’t feel anything at all.

When her father took her hand later that evening, kissing it and holding it close to his heart as tears spilled from his eyes, Laura stared at them and kept wondering how. How was it possible that she felt the lightest stroke of Carmilla’s fingers on hers but couldn’t feel her own father grasping at her hand? She had to make sense of this. She waited for visitors’ hours to be over, said goodbye to her dad even though he couldn’t hear her and disappeared again into thin air.


	8. Chapter 8

Carmilla liked living alone. She always had. She liked walking around in her underpants without having to worry about prudish roommates. She liked eating and drinking whatever she liked, whenever she liked with no judgment from anyone except maybe the grocery shop employee who only sold potato chips and beer bottles to her. She liked only cleaning after herself when and if she deemed it absolutely inevitable. And most of all, she liked the quiet.

Yet for some reason tonight, walking into her apartment alone, nothing but the sound of her own steps keeping her company, she found a strange feeling of loneliness washing over her. Like something was missing. She opened her fridge to get a beer but her eyes fell on a plate of lasagne she had bought a few days before and she decided she could eat an actual meal for once. She rolled her eyes, realising she was listening to Laura’s voice in her head even when the ghost was nowhere in sight.

She sat contently at her table, eating by herself when a noise interrupted her dinner. Was that her doorbell? She didn’t even know her door had a bell.

“I locked myself out”

Elsie smirked, walking right past Carmilla and into her apartment without waiting for an invitation. Or a greeting for that matter.

“Sure, make yourself at home”

Carmilla mumbled as she watched the girl go right for her fridge, taking out a beer for herself and offering her one as well. Offering Carmilla one of her own beers. And Carmilla found herself turning her down, surprising herself. She just wanted to get this girl out of here, she was in no mood for company.

She tried to tell Elsie that but the blonde didn’t seem to be listening to anything but her own voice. After downing the first beer and helping herself to a second one, she went to lounge on Carmilla’s couch, going on and on about her summer adventures on the beaches of some place or the other, who knows, Carmilla wasn’t really listening.

She was seeing, though. She was seeing the blonde ‘casually’ losing random pieces of clothing as she spoke. First it was her shoes, then came her sweater, shortly followed by her hairband, which Elsie removed for the sole purpose of whipping her hair around like a maniac. An action that was meant to appear attractive, Carmilla assumed, but only made her seem like she was having a weird stroke.

In truth, Carmilla might have appreciated all of this at another time but her heart just was not in it tonight. She just wanted this girl to go home.

“How about I walk you back to your floor and you can wait for the locksmith there, uh?”

She tried.

“Sure, sure. But first, can I use your bathroom?”

Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“Third door on the right”

She pointed to the end of a hallway. After Elsie left, thanking her with a wink and a smirk, Carmilla got up from her armchair and made her way to the hallway as well, to wait for the girl and finally walk her home.

“This sucks”

Carmilla turned around startled.

“Laura? What are you doing here?”

Laura furrowed her brows.

“I mean, I didn’t think I’d see you again. So soon. I thought you were staying at the hospital”

“I was but then my father and my friend Perry were there and that stupid jerk-face Theo had to go and tell them I signed a stupid form and now they might take me off life support”

“What?”

Carmilla asked, eyes wide in worry.

“Yeah, he gave my dad some papers to sign. And I was trying to tell them, I was screaming at them not to do it, to keep me on it but no one could hear me and it was just so frustrating, I had to come see you”

“Oh, Carmillaaaa…”

A voice came from the opposite end of the hallway, both girls turning towards it.

“Who is that?”

“Nobody”

“Oh. My gosh. I can’t believe you! I am out there literally fighting for my life and you’re here with just some girl?!”

“It’s not like that! It’s our neighbour, you know, the blonde one? She locked herself out”

“I’ll bet she did. And she’s looking for the key in your bedroom?”

“What? No, she just went to the bathroom…”

Carmilla tried to explain. But when Laura pointed to the clothes that were currently being thrown one by one out of the door of her bedroom, her mouth snapped shut.

“Laura, I didn’t- I had no idea she-“

“Was stripping naked in your bedroom?”

Carmilla nodded, knowing very well she didn’t look very believable.

“It’s fine, really. I mean it’s my life, my death, my problems. You should go have fun.”

“Laura…”

“No, really. By all means. Go right ahead”

Carmilla regarded her strangely before a smirk started to appear on her face.

“You know what I think? I think you sound jealous”

Laura scoffed.

“Please, jealous? Of somebody with so little self-respect they would just knock on a stranger’s door and go strip in their bed like it’s the most normal thing in the world?”

“So you wouldn’t mind if I went in there and joined her?”

Laura shook her head no but took a step back when Carmilla took one closer to her.

“Okay then, maybe that’s what I’ll do”

Carmilla took another step forward, forcing Laura to walk back, but instead of collapsing with the wall behind her, she started disappearing in it. She yelped and stood back where she was before, leaving her and Carmilla’s faces to be very close.

“Are you talking to someone?”

Elsie’s face popped out from behind the bedroom door. Carmilla and Laura instinctively put some space between each other, even though the blonde couldn’t see the shorter girl.

“No, no, of course not”

Elsie walked closer and smirked at her.

“Want to do some more not-talking?”

At Carmilla’s blatant hesitation, she stopped walking, her face and voice suddenly more serious.

“Look, I know I may come on a little too strong. Honestly, I was feeling a little lonely and I thought maybe you were too. So then I thought, why can’t we keep each other company?”

The blonde sounded sincere for the first time since they had met. Laura looked at her and then back at Carmilla.

“Carm, just do it. You know you want to, she clearly wants you to”

“I don’t”

Carmilla whispered, looking at Laura. Elsie followed her eyes to the empty space next to her.

“You okay?”

“She is standing right in front of you. Tangible. Real. I… I’m in the way”

The ghost started walking away.

“Laura, wait!”

“My name’s Elsie”

Carmilla turned back around to see the blonde was once again wearing her sultriest smirk. And nothing else.

 

 

“Well that was quick”

Laura commented as she saw Carmilla walk up to her on their roof.

“Oh come on, you know nothing happened”

“It didn’t?”

“Of course not”

Carmilla came to a stop right in front of Laura, who gave her a small smile at the confirmation.

“What did you tell her?”

“That I was seeing someone”, she shrugged.

“I didn’t really mention I was the only one who could”

Laura smiled again, looking to the floor shyly, and soon they settled into a comfortable silence, looking at the city lights glowing in the night.

“I used to do that”

Laura turned to look at Carmilla when she started speaking again.

“Sleep around. A lot. My freshmen year of college left a lot of study buddies in its wake.

But then I met Ell. She was different than those girls. Kinder. Purer. And she deserved someone good. Someone better than I was. So I became that someone. Started going to class, getting decent grades. Two years later we moved in together. I proposed.”

“What happened?” Laura asked with a small voice.

“She was crossing the street one day and a car just came out of nowhere, full speed. Killed her on the spot” Carmilla wiped a tear from her cheek.

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye”

Laura’s hand went to rest on Carmilla’s, or, more specifically, it lingered above hers. Almost touching, but not quite.

“I’m really sorry, Carm”

“Thanks, cupcake”

The dark-haired girl’s lips quirked up in a small smile as she stared at their hands.

“Those papers… your dad wouldn’t sign them, right?”

Laura took her hand away and sighed deeply, staring out at the Toronto skyline.

“I really don’t know. Normally, I would tell you no, in a heartbeat. But he looked so devastated Carm, and just so, so tired. And I hate to admit it but Theo made quite a compelling case. Even if he didn’t, my brain activity is decreasing more and more each day”

“I mean, that’s not entirely bad. You are kind of a smarty pants”

Carmilla laughed at Laura’s offended expression.

“Hey! You’re lucky I can’t hit you right now”

The laughing subsided a little as the girls simply stared at each other.

“Yeah. Lucky.”


	9. Chapter 9

“Close your eyes”

“Why?”

“Because I asked nicely”

Laura still looked unconvinced. Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“You’re a ghost, you literally cannot trip and fall even if you tried”

Laura glanced around them but all she could see were green trees. Carmilla had driven them to the middle of nowhere in the countryside and then proceeded to park on the side of the road, and was now standing outside of the car, holding Laura’s door open for her. The girl finally caved, closing her eyes after one last glance at her roommate and followed Carmilla’s instructions as they walked for about a minute, until she was told to stop. She heard the creaking of what appeared to be an old gate opening and closing before Carmilla told her to walk about 20 steps more in front of her and stopped her again.

“Okay, open your eyes”

Laura did, and couldn’t help her mouth from dropping open as well. They were standing in the middle of a large garden, in front of a beautiful villa. The garden had different types of plants and flowers on every edge, meeting inside of it to form the most wonderful and colourful shapes.

“Carm, this is so beautiful”

Carmilla smirked.

“Thank you”

“What- you made this?!”

The girl nodded.

“It was my job. I guess technically it still is, I just haven’t done it in a while. I’m a landscape architect.”

“That’s amazing. _This_ is amazing”

Laura gushed, looking around herself with wide eyes. She walked around a little and then turned back to Carmilla with an odd expression.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just… this is going to sound ridiculous, but I feel like I’ve been here before. Not here-here, but, a place like this. In a dream.”

Laura looked thoughtful, as if trying to remember the feeling of the dream, but then she locked eyes with Carmilla and stepped to stand right in front of her, holding her hand out.

“Promise me this isn’t the last garden you make. Promise me you’ll go back to creating beautiful, wonderful places that will blow people away”

Carmilla regarded her face and then her hand with a raised eyebrow and a small smile, before placing her palm next to Laura’s, close enough to touch, and yet immensely out of reach. Still, the small girl couldn’t help but grin at the gesture.

The tune of Carmilla’s ringtone interrupted the moment, forcing the girl to remove her hand and retrieve her phone.

“Hello?”

“Miss Karnstein? Hi, it’s Danny Lawrence. I am calling about your apartment”

“Is something wrong?”

“Oh no, quite the opposite. They have decided to offer you a longer lease”

Carmilla looked at Laura worriedly.

“How come?”

“Turns out the previous owner was actually a girl who had a pretty bad accident and has been in a coma ever since. The family decided to pull the plug. It’s really sad but good news for you, I guess. So when can you come over-“

Carmilla hung up the phone and started walking to her car.

“We have to go talk to your dad”

“What, why?!”

She explained the situation to a puzzled Laura as they got in the car and Carmilla started driving.

“My dad would close the door in your face before you could even say the word ghost. He would think you’re some kind of evil-doer trying to profit from his bad situation or something, he has a hard time trusting new people”

“So I’ll just say I’m your girlfriend like I did with the doctor”

Laura snorted.

“If you want to be bathed in bear spray, be my guest. He won’t believe you, anyway. He called me every week, he would have known if I had a girlfriend. Even if he didn’t call me every week, he would find a way to know”

“Okay then, what do you suggest?”

Laura thought about it for a moment.

“Perry. She was with him when Theo gave him the documents, my dad trusts her and she is slightly more likely to believe this whole thing. Probably. Maybe. Quite possibly.”

Carmilla raised an eyebrow at her.

“At least she doesn’t carry any bear spray. The worst thing she’ll throw at you is a cupcake”

“Marvellous”

 

 

Not twenty minutes later, they were back in the city, sitting in the car, parked in front of the bakery where Perry worked.

“Wait, we need something to tell her, something to convince her that you’re really here”

Carmilla said before Laura could climb out the car.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, something nobody else but you would know about her”

Laura thought about it for a bit.

“She loves baking”

“She works in a bakery, I think that’s pretty obvious”

Laura sighed in frustration, she got out of the car and started walking towards the shop, Carmilla following her, before speaking again.

“Her hero is Julia Childs and I always tell her she is just like Amy Adams’ character in that film, Julie & Julia, she even looks like her, except Perry’s probably an even better cook. She doesn’t make much from her job but she loves the owners too much to quit and open her own place, which I know is secretly a dream of hers”

They stopped when they arrived in front of the shop. Laura took a deep breath and Carmilla gave her what she hoped was a reassuring smile before turning the door knob and walking inside. A bell sounded to announce their arrival and a young woman with red hair turned around from her spot behind the counter, where she appeared to be mixing some kind of dough. She had flour on her apron and a little bit on her chin as well.

“Hello! How may I help you?”

“Uh, hi. Perry, right?”

Carmilla asked politely, although she was pretty sure she knew the answer already.

“Yes?”

Perry’s smile never faltered but there was a hint of surprise in her tone. She had mostly regular customers and knew all of them by name, she was not used to seeing new faces, especially young faces. The place was mostly frequented by couples with kids and old people.

“My name’s Carmilla Karnstein. I was hoping we could have a word about Laura, Laura Hollis?”

Perry’s smile finally fell as her brows furrowed and she didn’t bother to hide her surprise anymore.

“Oh. Oh, of course”

The baker replied with sad eyes, gesturing for Carmilla to follow her as they both sat in front of each other at one of the shop’s tables.

“So how do you know Laura?”

“I…”

Carmilla opened her mouth to reply but suddenly there were two tiny pairs of hands attached to Perry’s apron and dress.

“Miss Perry! Hey! Can we have a tea party?”

“With cookies and creampuffs! Pretty pleaseeee”

The children to whom the hands belonged to started asking in unison, not letting go of the woman.

“Riley, James, can’t you see I am talking with someone here?”

Perry reprimanded them with a sweet smile. The two turned their attention to Carmilla.

“We’re sorry, miss”

They said with a pout.

“Can we though?”

The boy, James, whispered, turning back to look at Perry.

“Of course. Will you excuse me for a moment?”

Carmilla nodded, a little put off by this unexpected turn of events as she watched Perry quickly set up a table with treats and tea for the children.

“You can’t tell her now!”

Laura said after her friend and the children disappeared behind the counter, the woman making tea while the kids emptied the cookies display window.

“Why not?”

Carmilla asked through gritted teeth, trying to look like she wasn’t talking to the empty space in the chair next to hers.

“Because! The kids! You can’t do this in front of them, it’s going to creep them out! And they’ll be devastated to hear I am dying and a ghost. They love me”

Laura added proudly.

“Probably because they can sense you’re one of them”

The ghost blew her a raspberry and Carmilla gave her a smirk in return, quickly stopping herself when she noticed Perry had returned to stand in front of her, looking at her with a strange expression.

“Would you like some tea?”

The red head asked, choosing to ignore the woman’s weird behaviour.

“Uh, sure, thank you”

“So sorry about that. The owners are out and asked me to keep an eye on those two. They’re lovely but they can require quite a bit of attention. Anyway… You were telling me how you know Laura?”

“You can’t tell her we dated!”

Carmilla glanced at Laura’s panicked expression.

“She’s my best friend, she would know even if we just went out for a coffee. You can’t tell her we lived in the same apartment building either!”

The short girl added, anticipating what Carmilla was about to say and leaving her to open and close her mouth again for the second time.

“She knows I would have told her if someone like you lived in my building”

Laura mumbled her explanation and could almost feel herself blush, even though it wasn’t possible in her current situation. Carmilla bit down a smirk, Perry staring at her expectedly and politely, albeit a bit weirded out by her odd behaviour.

“I was her patient. I uh, broke my arm last year. She was the first to take care of me when I arrived to the ER and refused to leave my case until I was the perfect picture of health again”

Both Laura and Perry looked pleased by the explanation, the red head smiling wistfully.

“That definitely sounds like her”

“She’s pretty amazing”

Carmilla added, daring to look at the ghost as she uttered the words, enjoying how cutely embarrassed she got.

“She is. But, pardon my candour, why are you telling me this?”

“I heard about her situation and I didn’t really know who to turn to about this but I just needed to do something for her. I remembered she told me about a friend working in this place and I just wanted to tell you, I think she just needs more time. She will pull through this. She will wake up”

Once again, Carmilla’s eyes darted in Laura’s direction, hoping the girl would hear the conviction behind her words. Perry studied the girl in front of her for a moment.

“Carmilla, right? It is very sweet that you would come all the way here to tell me that. I can see Laura definitely made an impression on you and I can’t say I don’t understand why, she was always amazing at her job. Always making sure everybody was okay”

She smiled sadly.

“But I am afraid you’re too late”

“What?”

Carmilla could not hide the panic in her voice.

“Mr Hollis has decided to cut Laura’s artificial life sustention. He was as heartbroken as you probably can imagine, but he could not cover the expenses of a private care facility like that doctor suggested”

Perry grimaced as she mentioned Theo, barely hiding her disdain for the guy.

“But most of all, he wanted to respect Laura’s wishes. He said he has spent his life trying to protect her and making decisions for her, he wanted this last one to be Laura’s”

She lowered her eyes, trying to hide her tears.

“He can’t do that”

Carmilla said after a second of silence, surprising the woman with her resolute tone.

“I’m sorry, but it’s already been done, he signed the documents-“

“I don’t give a shit about the documents!”

“Carm!”

Laura reprimanded her, watching Perry’s eyes widen and her mouth drop open at the outburst.

“I apologise. It’s just…”

Carmilla looked at the ghost sitting next to her and then turned back to the redhead.

“Laura is still alive. I can see her, I can talk to her. I don’t know how or why, but she is alive and she is here”

Perry turned her gaze to follow Carmilla’s, confusion written all over her face.

“She told me about you. She said you are an amazing cook and ever greater baker. She told me all about how you met in college and you would always bug her about her sugary diet yet baked her sweets every time she was sad or lonely or had to lock herself in her room to study. She said you love Julia Childs and-“

“Stop. Please. Stop.”

Perry was shaking her head, keeping it turned to the ground.

“I know it’s a lot to take in, but if you just…”

Carmilla cut herself off as the small girl, Riley, she thought, walked up to them and left a cookie, a creampuff and a cupcake on their table. Perry plastered a huge smile on her face as she got up.

“Riley, honey, why don’t you and your brother go play upstairs? I will be there in a second”

She motioned for the kids to take the stairs at the end of the shop and watched them go. As soon as she heard the door close behind them, she turned to Carmilla with eyes nearly out of her sockets, pointing the spoon she was still holding from her tea at her guest.

“I don’t know what kind of sick joke you think this is, but you need to go”

Carmilla got up and started walking backwords as Perry kept threatening her with her spoon and crazy eyes. She held her hands up in surrender.

“I am not making this up, I swear. What reasons would I have to do that?”

“You are clearly mentally instable, not to mention disrespectful. How dare you come in here and tell me my best friend is with you?!”

“But she is! She is right there”

“Carm, this was a bad idea, let’s just go”

“No, cupcake, I’m not leaving. They can’t do this to you”

Perry followed Carmilla’s eyes and words to an empty spot next to her.

“You are saying Laura’s ghost is standing next to you right now?”

“More like her spirit, but, yeah”

Carmilla nodded, hopefully, but Perry only started shaking her head again, harder than before.

“No. No, no, no, no. Ghosts, spirits, presences – these things do not exist, they are not real. You have to go. just go and be normal. Just be normal!”

Perry freaked out, swinging the teaspoon at Carmilla, who kept her hands up before finally giving up and walking outside.

The red haired woman took a deep, calming breath. She slowly and carefully put the spoon back on the table. Her brows furrowed as she noticed the kids had left three treats on it. She went upstairs to check on them.

“Hey guys! Are you okay?”

The twins looked up from the papers they were drawing on and nodded.

“Riley, why did you leave those sweets on our table, sweetie?”

“Well, you like creampuffs with your tea. The scary lady looked like she would like a cupcake. And auntie Laura looooves cookies”

“Auntie Laura?”

“Yes! Did she like it? It was peanut butter and chocolate, her favourite!”

The kid beamed at her as Perry took a step back and let herself fall down on the armchair behind her. This was not possible, was it?


	10. Chapter 10

“So, now what?”

Carmilla asked as she sat on a park bench next to Laura. The ghost had wandered there after their failure of a visit to Perry.

“Now I sit here and watch the kids play while I pretend that I can enjoy the sun on my face and actually feel the wind blowing through my hair”

Carmilla rolled her eyes.

“Aren’t you a damned poet”

She watched Laura’s lip quirk up but her eyes were still sad as they stared ahead of her, so she sighed and scooted a little closer.

“Not all hope is lost. I could still talk to your dad-“

“Bear spray” Laura reminded her with a quick glance.

“-okay so maybe not your dad. How about one of your colleagues? I would even settle for that asshole with the weird accent.”

“It’s no use, Carm. He would only lock you up in the psychiatric wing. Let’s face it, you’re the only one who can see me and no one in their right mind will believe you, so this is it. For me, this is it”

“You know, I think that kid saw you. She left a cookie right in front of you”

Laura smiled sadly.

“I don’t think a four year old’s testimony would do much for our case”

Carmilla sat thoughtfully for a minute before speaking again.

“There _is_ someone else we could try”

Laura looked at her curiously but the girl said nothing more, only getting up and walking to her car, the ghost following closely behind.

 

 

“Dude, you can’t bring her in here!”

“Hello to you too, Kirsch”

Carmilla replied in a monotone.

“Look, yes, Laura’s here, but we’ve got a good reason. You were both right, she is alive but she’s in a coma”

“Laura, uh?”

Kirsch grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. The girl rolled her eyes at him.

“Kirsch, focus! Her father will have her taken off life support tomorrow”

Kirsch's smile dropped.

“That’s uncool of him”

“It sure is. So do you happen to know a way we can put her back inside her body before then?”

Laura started spouting suggestion to do so, ranging from magical enchantments to electroshock treatment. Carmilla selected the least ridiculous ones and repeated them to the boy, but he shook his head.

“You are totally asking the wrong question here”

“What’s the right question?”

“You see, sexy lady, I have this gift. I don’t know how or why but I can sense these spirits, ghosts, troubled souls, whatever you want to call them. I only know they’re stuck because they have some kind of unfinished business here, and I sometimes can tell how they’re feeling. Like this one right here has a serious case of the feels for her roommate”

Kirsch grinned, nodding to Laura’s general direction.

“What? I do not!”

“No need to be embarrassed. Yeah, I can sense that too”

He kept smiling as Carmilla smirked at the ghost, thoroughly enjoying the exchange.

“Just ask him how to fix this”

Laura mumbled. The dark haired girl smirked some more but did as she was told.

“Oh, I can’t fix this for you. You’ll have to figure this one out for yourself”

“But why? Do I have the gift too?”

Kirsch chuckled.

“Pft, you wish, bro. You’re a civilian”

“He means muggle”

Laura added with a small laugh.

“Shut up, you. So how can I see and talk to her if I don’t have the gift?”

“Yes!”

Kirsch beamed at her. Laura and Carmilla both looked at each other in confusion, then turned back to the boy with raised eyebrows. He elaborated.

“ _That_ is the right question”

 

 

“I don’t understand”

“You and me both, cupcake”

Carmilla said, locking the door to the house behind her and walking to the living room. She started rummaging through the many books on the supernatural that she had left lying around there.

“He spoke as if there was some kind of link between you and me from before but I have no idea what- what are you doing?”

“Searching”

“For what?”

“For something! A clue, an answer, a starting point, anything that will give me an idea on how to save you!”

Laura looked at the other girl, sitting on the floor surrounded by ridiculous books about séances. She slowly sat down in front of her, wishing she could just reach out and lift Carmilla’s chin so she could look at her. She quickly shook that thought away.

“Carmilla”

“What?”

The dark haired girl asked, not looking up from the pile of paper she was frantically going through.

“Carm”

Laura said more softly. Carmilla finally looked up, her eyes filled with worry and a flicker of hope mixed with something else that made Laura’s heart skip a beat, or would have if she were still in her body.

“You need to stop. It’s okay”

The girl looked at her as if she didn’t understand what she was saying.

“No, Laura, I can’t stop. I won’t stop until we find a solution, we can’t just…”

Carmilla looked at the girl sitting in front of her. She was smiling but it didn’t look happy. It looked resigned and tired. Laura scooted closer to her, until they were both sitting with their back against the couch, shoulder to shoulder. Almost touching.

“You know, I remember more about my life now. I didn’t when I first met you, but it started to come back to me in pieces. I worked so much. I was valedictorian at my high school, best in my journalism class before I decided to switch to medicine, and then I managed to get through that too. I even got a promotion right before I… before the accident. I would have been the youngest resident attendant in the hospital.

But what does all of that get me? I spent my life studying, and working, and just trying so hard to be this perfect person… and for what?”

“You help people. You save lives”

Laura turned to look at Carmilla with tears in her eyes.

“Yeah. Including my own. I saved my life for later. I just never thought I would not have a later”

“Laura, I… we can still fight this. We can find a way”

“No, Carm. It’s okay, really. As I said, I spent my life studying and working and that didn’t get me anywhere. I am not wasting my last night that way”

Laura wiped a tear from her face. Carmilla stared into her eyes and then nodded in understanding.

“Okay, then… what do you want to do?”

“I just want to do something with you”

Carmilla smiled a little, getting up.

“Alright. What do you want to do? Do you want to take the car somewhere? We could go to the Niagara Falls and watch the sunset. Or, or we could catch a plane and go to New York. Heck, we could go to Paris. Anywhere, anywhere in the world, just name it, we’re there.”

Laura smiled shyly, averting her eyes to the ground as she spoke.

“There is one thing I would really like to try, if that’s okay”

“Anything, Laura. Anything you want.”

The ghost raised her head and smiled at her beautifully before standing and walking away.

 

 

So maybe this was a bad idea. Because now she was in bed with Carmilla lying next to her, looking at her like she was the most precious thing in the world and all she could think about was how she wanted her to touch her, how scared she was that she would. How terrified she was that she wouldn’t.

“I can see the wheels in your brain turning. Are you nervous, sweetheart?”

Carmilla smirked teasingly.

“I am, actually”

“How can you be nervous when I can’t even touch you?”

She asked in a much softer tone, almost a whisper. Laura scooted a little bit closer, letting her hand rest on the covers between them.

“Maybe that’s why I’m nervous. Maybe I want you to touch me”

There were many ways Carmilla could have chosen to reply to that but Laura’s words sounded so desperately honest and true, that all she could do was look down at the girl’s hand, resting her own right next to it, and answer as sincerely as she could.

“I don’t think there is anything I desire more in the world, cupcake”

“Maybe you could”

Laura was staring at her with an unreadable expression.

“When we were in the hospital and you touched my hand, I felt it. I mean, my _spirit_ felt it. I don’t know how, but I think if you could ever really touch me. I think maybe then I could wake up.”

Carmilla kept looking at her eyes before lowering her gaze to their hands. She opened her own as Laura did the same, their palms facing each other, slowly coming together. Laura closed her eyes.

“I can almost feel that”

She whispered.

“Me too”

When Laura opened her eyes again, a few seconds later, Carmilla was still staring at their joined hands.

“I think… I think I know why I’m here”

Carmilla turned her gaze to her, a quizzical eyebrow raising in question.

“Kirsch said I had unfinished business. I don’t know how but, I think… I think my unfinished business is you.”


	11. Chapter 11

Carmilla grimaced, turning in her bed as an unwelcome ray of sunshine slid through her window curtains and hit her right in the face, rudely interrupting her sleep. She kept her eyes closed for a little before her brain woke up as well and she suddenly remembered the day before.

“Laura!”

She opened her eyes frantically, her gaze soon taking in the shape of the small girl lying next to her, right where she left her last night, staring at her.

“Hey”

“Hey”

Carmilla replied just as softly, unable to hide the small smile that took over her face.

“I was afraid you were gone”

“Not yet”

The ghost answered wistfully, still staring at her as if she were committing her features to memory.

“And you won’t be”

Carmilla suddenly got up, throwing the covers off of herself and surprising Laura, who also got to her feet, following the girl to the bathroom and stopping in front of the door.

“What do you mean I won’t be?”

Carmilla finished brushing her teeth and came out of the bathroom wearing a different shirt than she had slept in.

“When we first met, I was so sure you were dead, but you were not. I was. You brought me back to life. You saved me”

She slowly paused to look up at Laura from her spot where she was sitting on the bed, currently putting her boots on.

“And now it’s my turn to save you”

Laura tried to hide her smile.

“Okay and how do you intend on doing that exactly?”

Laura followed Carmilla out the door.

“I’m going to steal your body”

“What?!”

They were walking on the sidewalk now.

“Carm, that is insane! Considerate, but completely insane, not to mention very much illegal. You’ll go to jail!”

“Who the hell cares about any of that? I won’t let anything happen to you”

Laura stared at her, seeing nothing but determination in her eyes. She sighed.

“Even if you were to do this, you would need to know things like, like how to keep me alive and breathing and you’d need somebody crazy enough to go along with this plan to help you”

Carmilla grinned at her.

“Luckily enough I have a ghostly doctor and a mad scientist at my disposal”

 

 

Not ten minutes later, they were driving way past the city limits, Carmilla at the wheel with Lafontaine sitting next to her and Laura in the back.

“You know I’m always happy to help, Carmilla. Even when you literally drag me out of bed at 8 AM on a Saturday and all but steal my company van…”

“Yeah, thanks Frankenstein. I really do appreciate it”

“Sure, sure, no problem. Could you just, maybe, in return, tell me why the hell you are doing any of this?”

Carmilla glanced at Laf first, then at Laura from her rear-view mirror.

“Remember my roommate?”

“You mean Casper the not-so-friendly OCD ghost?”

Carmilla smirked at the description, which earned a defensive “Hey!” from Laura.

“Their words, not mine”

The driver shrugged, still smirking.

“What?”

Lafontaine asked in confusion.

“She’s real, Laf. She lived in the apartment before me. She is in a coma right now and they’re about to pull the plug if we don’t stop them”

Carmilla parked in a hurry and quickly got out of the car, Lafontaine following her as she easily sneaked inside from the back of the hospital, following Laura’s instruction. The ghost led them to a storage room and started pointing out things and equipment they would need to keep her body alive, which Carmilla started gathering in her arms.

“Carmilla, wait. What are you doing?”

“We’re going to need these things to keep Laura alive”

“Keep her alive?”

“Yeah. We’re sort of… stealing her body”

She had the decency to look sheepish as she bit her bottom lip and momentarily stopped her crazy shopping.

“So, let me get this straight. We are breaking into a hospital to steal their resources and the body of a girl whose ghost has been your annoying roommate of the last few weeks?”

“Pretty much, yeah”

Lafontaine seemed to ponder over it for a bit. They seemed rather calm and accepting considering the situation they found themselves in.

“But… why?”

Carmilla was expecting them to tell her she had gone insane and try to guide her to psych ward immediately, so the question threw her off. She didn’t take the time to think before she replied.

“Because I love her”

Laura’s eyes widened, meeting Carmilla’s.

“I do. I love you, Laura”

The ghost smiled brightly but Lafontaine interrupted their moment before she could say anything.

“Wait, she’s right here?”

They put their hand forward, moving it around to try and locate Laura, effectively running their arm right through her stomach.

“Woah, that is uncomfortable”

The ghost squirmed. Carmilla shook her head with a small smile. Lafontaine stood still, staring at what they only saw as empty space next to them, before they disappeared behind the shelves. They came back a few seconds later wheeling a gurney.

“We’re going to need some way to get her out of here”

They explained with a smile. They must have found scrubs as well, as they were wearing them. They threw some to Carmilla as well before walking to the door and opening it, after making sure nobody would see them.

“So you believe me?”

Carmilla asked them, standing on the opposite side of the gurney and directing them towards Laura’s room.

“I mean, this whole thing is pretty insane but I don’t think _you_ are. Plus, there will come a day when I need to move a body and on that day, I don’t want to hear any shit from you”

Carmilla smiled fondly at them as they finally reached their destination, sneaking into the room and closing the door behind them.

“Woah”

“I know, she’s beautiful, isn’t she?”

Lafontaine rolled their eyes as Carmilla smirked to a spot next to her, presumably where the ghost was.

“Keep it in your pants, Karnstein. I meant woah, this is Laura”

“Yes, I told you that”

“No, I mean, this is Laura, Perry’s friend”

“You know Perry?”

“I’m dating Perry!”

“You’re dating Perry?!”

The scientist sighed in exasperation.

“Yes, I am. Which you would if you ever returned my calls, or accepted one of my many invites to hang out with us.”

Carmilla bit her lip, feeling a little guilty about neglecting her friend.

“Since when?”

“About two months ago. Remember that cute bakery lady I had a crush on for forever? I had even managed to turn it into a double date for you, but of course you bailed, thank you very much. That probably would have blown my shot with her but then her friend also didn’t make it because she had an accident”

They gestured to Laura’s comatose body, looking at her with sad eyes.

“This is it. This is _why_. Why I’m here, why you’re the only one who can see or hear me. I was right. _You_ are my unresolved business”

Carmilla stared at the ghost but before they could do or say anything more they heard footsteps and a voice right outside the door.

“Shoot, that’s Theo”

“He’s coming in”

“Well, stop him!”

“How?!”

With no time for a plan as the doorknob was already turning, Carmilla shot Laf a quick glance, hoping they would understand what she meant to do, and flung herself out of the room and right in front of Theo, slamming the door closed behind her.

“His name is Doctor Straka”

Laura provided quickly.

“Doctor Straka? Hi, I’m…”

“Tell him you’re a special consultant sent down here for a final evaluation”

Carmilla repeated what she was told, Theo eyeing her suspiciously.

“I have no verbal or written instructions to that end”

“We, uhm, we found new evidence that supports that full functionality could be restored”

Once again, Carmilla tried to echo the ghost’s exact words, but Theo still looked unconvinced.

“Who’s we? And what’s your name again?”

“Dr… Grey”

“Okay, I don’t know who you are, so I’m going to call security-“

A fist connected with Theo’s face before he could finish the sentence, sending him to the ground.

“Great, the felonies just keep piling up”

Laf commented, wheeling the gurney with Laura’s body on it out of the room and starting to walk towards the elevator with Carmilla. Unfortunately, punching an attendant had gathered people’s attention and as the elevator doors opened, two security guards started to walk out and towards them. Laf hastily let go of the gurney and jumped on them, keeping them away long enough for the elevator to leave. Carmilla grabbed the gurney and started leading it towards another exit, but she was soon surrounded in the middle of the hospital lounge.

“Carm”

Laura whispered, sounding slightly panicked.

“My respiration tube. It’s gone”

“What? No! This can’t happen, what can I do?”

“It’s too late. It’s already happening”

Laura looked at her with tearful eyes.

“I’m sorry”

She whispered, barely audible, disappearing more and more each second.

“No, Laura!”

Carmilla turned to the Laura she could still see and, more importantly, touch. She reached out and gently cupped her cheeks, moving closer.

“Stay with me”

She breathed across the girl’s lips, gently pressing down with her own.


	12. Chapter 12

Laura watched as Carmilla grabbed her face and kissed her softly, her hand moving instinctively to touch her own mouth. She could still feel herself disappearing but her whole being was now focusing on the feeling of the girl’s lips on her own and the smell of leather and old books instead.

“Carm…”

She whispered the word in one last breath and then she was gone.

Carmilla was forced to let go of Laura as a couple of security guards physically dragged her away from the girl. Some nurses started running around, following Theo’s order to keep her steady and find some sedatives to give her, but she didn’t care. She only cared for Laura. More importantly, for the machine keeping track of her heartbeat, which was still absent, the screen showing nothing but a flat line.

“No, no, no. Laura! Laura!”

“Laura? Laura!”

Another voice made her way from the crowd, a mess of curly red hair appearing as Perry went to stand next to her friend, taking her hand in hers and lowering her head, eyes closed, trying not to cry.

A nurse walked closer to Carmilla with a pretty terrifying looking needle. He was about to inject her when a strange noise grabbed everybody’s attention, turning them towards the gurney in the middle of the room. The constant sound of the heart monitor machine had suddenly stopped. After a moment, it was replaced with a weak but steady beeping, followed by a feeble cough. Carmilla felt her heart grow lighter, releasing a breath she didn’t even know she was holding.

“Laura, honey?”

Perry’s head shot up, her hand gripping her friend’s more firmly as she carefully moved hair from Laura’s face with the other.

“Perr? What’s going on? I think… I think I bumped my head”

Laura scrunched her face and furrowed her brows both in confusion and in pain as she tried to sit up, soon giving up. Perry managed a light chuckle, then moved to look at the nurses and guards still holding Carmilla down.

“It’s okay”

As soon as she was released, Carmilla rushed to Laura’s side, stopping right next to her and giving her the most genuine grin that had ever graced her face.

“Hey”

She managed a smaller, still beaming smile towards the short girl.

“Hey”

Laura replied, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“I’m sorry, I don’t…”

She looked to Perry for help.

“Honey, it’s Carmilla. You don’t remember Carmilla?”

Carmilla’s smile faltered when Laura turned back to her with nothing but confusion in her eyes.

“I’m your roommate, sweetheart”

When that didn’t help, she swallowed the lump in her throat, her smile falling completely, but tried again.

“The apartment? The rooftop? The garden?”

She watched as Laura only looked more and more puzzled, her brows furrowing and her head shaking lightly.

“Nothing”

Carmilla whispered finally, more to herself than anything, her heart that had felt so light only a minute ago suddenly weighing her down more than ever. Still, she looked down at Laura’s hand, resting so close to her on the gurney and tentatively reached out. Just to touch her one time. To hold her hand and really feel it against her own, nervous fingers brushing each other. But Laura moved her hand away as Carmilla’s moved down, her expression not only confused now but even a bit scared.

That was what did it. As much as Carmilla hated the thought of Laura not knowing her, she could not, would not have the girl be scared of her. She retracted her hand, head still hanging low. She briefly looked at Perry and nodded in understanding. She was not welcome anymore. She took a couple steps backwords and then spun around completely, walking away. She only turned one last time when she reached the door, surprised to catch a glimpse of Laura staring at her while Perry bent down to hug her. Carmilla managed a small smile and then she finally walked out of the hospital, out of Laura’s life.

 

 

The days went by slowly and uneventfully after that. Carmilla still could not bring herself to get back to work, but she needed to get her mind off of things. She obviously had to vacate her apartment and Laf offered to have her move in, at least until she found another accommodation. But that was still a bit awkward what with them dating Laura’s best friend, who she still suspected thought her to be mentally insane, refusing to acknowledge anything out of the ordinary had ever happened.

So Carmilla found herself taking more and more walks every time the baker was invited, to give the couple some space and to clear her own head as well. Not that it helped much, as she often ended up torturing herself by retracing the steps she had once taken with Laura. That was perhaps how she found herself standing in front of a beat-up old bookshop, shaking her head and hiding her smirk as she walked in to be greeted by an overly enthusiastic “Hey, vampire lady!”

That was how she started hanging out with the beefcake. She could barely believe it herself, but it was a welcome distraction, and, although she would never admit it out loud, under all the bro-talk and wacky supernatural stuff, Kirsch was a good guy. He felt genuinely bad when she told him, in the least amount of words humanly possible, what happened with Laura, and he didn’t push her to say anything more. Ever since that day, he just let her come in every other day and sit in a corner reading any book she liked. Sometimes, when she let her mind run away with the story she was reading and ended up staying after hours, Kirsch would order some take away and they would eat together.

And when one night Danny Lawrence, none other than her red-haired tree of an estate agent walked in and introduced herself as Kirsch’s fiancée, Carmilla could only chuckle and mumble an “of course you are”, because it didn’t make sense, but it did. Coincidences, it appeared, didn’t really exist after all.

 

 

After a few weeks of rehabilitation at the hospital, Laura was ready to come home. And as much as both Perry and her father had insisted she move in with either one of them for at least some time, she had put her foot down. She wanted to get back to her place, back to her normality. And she did. She hung out with Perry and the kids at the bakery, she worked part-time at the hospital, only treating the least urgent cases, but still occupying her time until she could make a full recovery. Yet, not a day went by that she didn’t think of the dark-haired girl. She thought she saw her in the crowd while she walked to work. In the window of her favourite restaurant. She creeped into her thoughts even at home, when she was lying on her couch watching Netflix, drifting off to sleep while snuggling in the constellation duvet that she didn’t remember buying but was just so comfortable and smelled so nice that she couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. She always couldn’t help her mind wandering back to those dark eyes.

That is what she was thinking about as she locked her door behind her, letting the suitcase fall next to her, when a small crash coming from above her shook her out of her reverie. She quickly rushed to the stairs that led to the rooftop and couldn’t help her mouth from hanging open when she reached it. The full surface was covered in a beautiful wooden pavement, with small rocky fountains decorating the sides, a garden table with chairs in front of her and a small patio at the far end. Her eyes landed on the girl kneeling down a few feet away, cleaning up a broken vase that had apparently fallen. The girl quickly put everything to the side and stood up as soon as she saw her.

“Hey”

Carmilla greeted, a little wary. Laura just stared at her with wide eyes, an incredulous look on her face as she took everything in.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just, Perry mentioned you were visiting your father for the week and I just, I thought it would be nice if…”

She gestured around a little.

“I wanted you to have your garden, I guess”

Laura looked around her some more before her eyes finally settled on Carmilla.

“How did you get in here?”

“Spare key, under the fire extinguisher”

Laura looked confused but she didn’t question it any further, nodding in understanding. She walked forward a little, letting her fingers caress the flowers’ petals as she went.

“I, uhm… I should probably go”

Carmilla said, walking towards the stairs.

“Wait!”

She turned back around, looking in Laura’s eyes hopefully. The short girl stared back before averting her eyes and nervously biting her lower lip.

“Can I have the key back?”

Carmilla chuckled lightly, shaking her head.

“Yeah, of course”

She walked back and went to stand right in front of Laura, fishing the key out of her jacket pocket and holding it in the palm of her hand in front of her. Laura didn’t immediately take it, she just stared at Carmilla as if she were taking her face in, trying to make sense of her.

“I know you, don’t I? But how… how do I know you?”

Her nose scrunched adorably and Carmilla couldn’t help but smile at her.

“Maybe we met in another life. Maybe in a dream”

Laura nodded and touched her hand to Carmilla’s to retrieve the key. Her eyes met Carmilla’s again and she didn’t let go of the girl’s hand, instead holding it more tightly.

“It wasn’t a dream, was it?”

Laura whispered, and Carmilla dared herself to hope.

“It’s my dream”

She whispered back, slowly caressing Laura’s hand with her thumb. The short girl stared at her for a moment before bursting out laughing. Rude, Carmilla thought.

“That’s from One Tree Hill?”

“What?”

Carmilla’s brows were furrowed but it barely mattered when Laura was grinning so beautifully at her, lightly shaking her head as she slowly pulled Carmilla closer by her hand, letting the other fall on the girl’s neck.

“Nothing. Just shut up and kiss me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 'Tis the end, my dear creampuffs. Thank you so much for reading my silly little adaptation, I hope you enjoyed it! I want to especially thank all the kind souls who took the time to leave kudos and flattering comments, I say this all the time but I mean it, each and every single one of them means the world to me!  
> Here's hoping we all survive ACT III tomorrow.  
> xx


	13. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ask and you shall receive ;)  
> I was so overwhelmed by the amount of amazing feedback on this story, and people asking for some sort of epilogue or conclusion, so here it is. I am a bit nervous about this because it all came out of this crazy head of mine, no guidelines from any film or TV series as a safety net, as I usually have. I hope you still like this! It also turned out to be extra-long, do I get any bonus points for that?

“…Merlin’s pants!”

Laura grumbled as she tripped at the entrance of her building, the contents of her grocery bags spilling all over the lobby's floor. She kneeled down with a sigh and started retrieving many cookies wrappers and some soda cans. She wondered if she should pick up the few vegetables and fruits she had purchased or if it would be believable to others that they had been mysteriously lost on her way home. As she was seriously pondering over this, hand hovering over an apple, a crackling sound brought her back to the present.

“Oops, sorry”

Elsie didn’t sound the least bit sorry as she moved her foot back, revealing the remains of what used to be a perfectly good chocolate chip cookie, to Laura’s horror. The tiny girl put on the best fake smile she could muster.

“It’s no problem”

She went back to gathering the rest of her items, thinking the blonde would leave, but she had no such luck.

“So, Lauren…”

“Laura”

“Right. How long have you been back? I must admit, I hadn’t noticed. But I did miss a certain brunette who was living at your place… any chance you’re thinking of moving out again?”

Laura finally stood up, having put her two grocery bags back together, and glared at Elsie with all the annoyance and defiance her 5’2 could convey.

“I had not moved out. I was in a coma. For months. I almost died.”

“Jeez, I was just wondering, cause that girl living here was like, a rare 10, all broody and mysterious. No need to get all worked up about it, Lyla”

The small doctor was holding her bags so tightly, they looked like they might explode in her hands any second now.

“My name is—“

“Cupcake”

Carmilla was suddenly at Laura’s side, taking one of the grocery bags out of the girl’s killer grip and putting one arm around her girlfriend’s waist, brushing her hip with her thumb to calm the little ball of rage down. Laura visibly relaxed into the embrace.

“I do occasionally answer to that”, she mumbled. Carmilla smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

Elsie looked dumbstruck but she recovered quickly, putting on a Cheshire cat-like smile and directing it at Carmilla.

“Why, hello. It’s so good to see you again.”

Laura could not believe her eyes. The nerve on this girl! Flirting with her girlfriend while she was standing right there. Again! She could not and would not have it. So, as Carmilla stammered an awkward hello, Laura dropped her bag and turned completely towards her, grabbing her face in her hands and planting a kiss right on her lips.

Carmilla was taken by surprise and forced to drop the bag she was holding as well, putting both her arms around Laura’s waist and holding her closer as she reciprocated the kiss.

“Well, okay then”

Elsie mumbled, walking away, not gaining any kind of reaction from the couple. Laura pulled back a few seconds later, resting her hands on Carmilla’s shoulder as the other girl smirked at her.

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s just cute when you’re jealous.”

“Shut up and help me pick these up”

Laura muttered, directing her attention to their food, once again scattered all across the lobby floor, as she let her arms fall from Carmilla and repeated the actions from just a few minutes before, a gloating Carmilla kneeling down by her side to help. Whatever, it was totally worth it.

 

 

“Carm, can you get that?”

Laura yelled from the kitchen, hair askew and hands in mittens as she tried and failed not to spill olive oil everywhere. She was cooking vegetables, for Hermione’s sake, how complicated could this be?!

“I got it, creampuff”

Carmilla finished setting the table and moved towards the door to greet their guests. She glanced at the clock on their living room wall as she passed it. 19.59. There was only one person they knew that would be so annoyingly on time.

“Perry, Laf. Welcome. Come on in”

She opened the door to let the ginger twins inside. She gave Laf a quick hug and only nodded awkwardly in Perry’s direction. The two were civil with each other but Carmilla was not effusive in general and Perry still believed her to be a psychopath who talked to the walls, so. Small steps.

“I brought you these”

Perry held a box towards Carmilla. The girl cautiously opened the lid, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Laura will _love_ these. In fact, why don’t you bring this with you to the kitchen? I am sure she could use the help as well. I have tried to offer mine but she seems a bit… defensive about her cooking”

Perry nodded, understanding the true meaning behind Carmilla’s words was something along the lines of ‘please save our kitchen it is about to be burnt down by a tiny incapable chef fury’.

“You seem happy”

Lafontaine observed once they were left alone, walking towards the living room with Carmilla. The girl would have normally opposed to such a remark, it went completely against her whole ‘unaffected by the world’ image. But the more time she spent with Laura, the more she found she did not care about that anymore.

“I actually, really am”

She simply answered with a small smile, gaining a shit-eating grin from Lafontaine.

“Oh, quit gloating already. Just sit on the couch and tell me what you want to drink.”

 

 

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang again. Thanks to Perry’s magical touch and calming presence, Laura was not completely hysterical anymore, her apron was now on the right way and the smell of the food was actually promising. Maybe this dinner wouldn’t be such a disaster after all.

“I got it”

Carmilla shouted from the living room, momentarily leaving Laf to go open the door.

“Bean stalk, beefcake”

“Why do we even bother hanging out with you?”

Danny wondered out loud with a roll of her eyes.

“Must be my winning personality”

Carmilla smirked back at her.

“Hey Karnstein, this is for you”

Kirsch just grinned at her, the girls’ bickering flying over his head completely, as usual. She opened the badly wrapped gift he had handed her and she had to bite her lip in order to hide the goofy smile that was threatening to take over her face in that moment. He had managed to hunt down a collection of mediaeval tales she once told him she couldn’t find anywhere.

“This is really awesome, Kirsch. Thank you.”

She said sincerely.

“Aww, look at that. You made Elvira feel again”

Carmilla blew Danny a raspberry as she closed the door behind them and led them to the living room. She introduced them to Lafontaine and started making small talk, waiting for Laura’s cue that dinner was ready and they could all move to the table.

Dinner was in fact ready, and Laura was about to go greet her guests and tell them just that, when she suddenly stopped in her tracks right outside the kitchen door, leaving Perry to ungracefully bump right into her as she was following close behind.

“Laura, honey. Is everything okay?”

“Oh no. No, no, no.”

Laura’s eyes had widened and her head was shaking violently as she turned around and quickly pushed Perry back inside the kitchen.

“I know that girl”

Perry leaned her head to the side to look around Laura, to the group of people chatting away in the living room.

“The tall redhead?”

Laura nodded vehemently.

“And you don’t like her?”

Perry furrowed her brows, trying to understand the girl’s strange reaction.

“No, it’s not that. I do. I did. A lot.”

Perry looked confused, so Laura explained.

“A few years ago, she was my patient. She broke her leg working out at the gym and had to come back every week for a couple of months for physical therapy. And she flirted, a lot. And I might have flirted back, a little”

Laura blushed, looking down, feeling a bit guilty although she had nothing to feel guilty about.

“It never went anywhere beyond that. I mean, she asked me out on her last day and we went for a coffee but then, you know me, I was so caught up with work, it just, never happened”

Perry smiled kindly at her in her mama-bear way.

“Well, I don’t see anything wrong with that”

“You don’t think it’s going to be weird, for us, or for Carm?”

“I have never seen you as happy as you are now with Carmilla. And this girl seems to be with that tall gentleman that she came in with”, she glanced behind Laura at Kirsch sitting with his arm around Danny.

“I’d say you have nothing to worry about”

With one last reassuring smile from Perry, the girls took off their aprons and picked up the plates of food they had prepared, carrying them to the dining room.

“Dinner’s ready!”

 

 

So, it was weird. Mostly because Laura made it so. When she had gone out into the living room to greet everyone, Kirsch had engulfed her in a bear hug and actually lifted her off the ground, grinning as he said “you’re real! You’re really real! That’s so awesome!”

After she was put down, she said hi to Laf and that’s when Danny approached her.

“Laura? Oh my gosh, it _is_ you!”

“You know each other?”

Carmilla asked. Laura laughed nervously.

“Yeah!” “No”

Danny and Laura answered simultaneously. Danny looked confused as Laura smiled sheepishly.

“Danny was my patient a few years ago. A long time ago. For like, a few weeks. It was nothing. It’s cool. Coolio beans. You look great—good. Okay. Healthy. You look healthy”

Everybody looked at Laura either with mild amusement or as if she had grown a second head. She cleared her throat.

“Right. Should we eat?”

As everybody was busy eating and laughing together, Carmilla subtly leaned closer to Laura, sitting next to her, and whispered.

“So _Danny_ ’s looking real healthy these days, isn’t she?”

She said teasingly. Laura chocked on the zucchini she was about to swallow, taking a sip of her water to calm herself down, whilst Carmilla just smirked at her.

“She is. Her leg’s healed nicely”

She nodded, not looking away from her plate. Before Carmilla could say anything to feed her growing blush and discomfort, she turned to Danny and Kirsch to try and deviate the subject.

“So how did you guys meet?”

“In college, actually. We were both in rival societies”

“Zeta Omega Mu!” Kirsch said with a grin, pumping his fist up in the air. Danny rolled her eyes but couldn’t hide a small smile.

“And you fell in love anyway and played Romeo and Juliet? How cute”, Carmilla commented.

Danny scoffed.

“No, not at all. We hated each other.”

“I didn’t hate you. I thought you were super badass and awesome” Kirsch cut in.

“Okay, then, let’s say we didn’t get along. But then a couple years ago, Kirsch needed help to keep his bookshop and he found out I was an estate agent living in the city”

“A big corporation wanted to buy me out and make a megastore out of it. But I love that place like it is, you know, all old and smelly but in a good way. It was like that when I grew up. It’s got like, sentimental value or something”

Everybody was more than a little surprised at Kirsch’s bro-like romanticism. Danny smiled at him.

“I suggested he started selling normal books and not just those supernatural rip-offs – no offense”, she added, knowing the big puppy really cared about his supernatural stuff, though not really understanding it.

“We started hanging out after that, and I still don’t really know how we ended up where we are now, but here we are nonetheless.”

“Hey! Don’t hurt a bro’s feelings!” Kirsch said after a moment, holding a hand to his heart, realising how not-flattering that sounded.

“I would reciprocate the question, but I think we all know how you two met” Danny motioned to Laura and Carmilla, who turned to each other, smiling like the lovesick idiots they were.

“Of course we do. Carmilla worked as an architect for Laura’s roof and asked her out after they met right then, for the first time right then, and now they’re moving in together. How nice.”

Perry forced a smile, nodding as she was seemingly trying to convince herself of her own story.

“That’s not exactly…”

“Don’t bother, L. She has decided she’d rather believe Karnstein’s a crazy lady who goes around kissing comatose girls and then makes them beautiful roof gardens than the whole being a ghost thing”

“Should I not take offence, at all, that is seems more plausible that I am more or less a necrophiliac with breaking and entering habits rather than just a gal who stumbled upon a tiny annoying ghostly roommate?”

“Come on, Karnstein, you have to admit, the whole ghost thing is a bit of a hard pill to swallow. I mean, I’ve been around Kirsch and his magical shenanigans for a while now and even I have some trouble wrapping my head around it.”

Danny intervened.

“But then again, as aggravating as you are, I hardly think you’re a sociopath. And at the end of the day, all that matters is that Laura is okay”

“Thank you, Danny”

Laura smiled gratefully at her.

“Anytime. You look really good okay healthy as well, by the way. Have you been practicing your krav maga?”

“I can’t believe you remember that!” Laura laughed, and the dinner went by smoothly.

 

 

“These cupcakes Perry brought are literally to die for”

Laura moaned, licking the frosting off her fingers as she went to bite her third – or was it fourth? – sugary victim. Carmilla barely indicated that she had heard her, eyes glued on the book she was reading, curtesy of Kirsch. Laura regarded her strangely, leaving the half eaten treat on her nightstand as she went to straddle Carmilla on the bed. When not even that did the trick, she raised her hand and gently brought the book down, forcing the other girl to look at her.

“Might be the only thing I miss about being a ghost, but putting my head through the pages to get your attention had definitely more pathos”

She joked. Carmilla’s lip only quirked upwards.

“Alright, what’s wrong? Why are you being broody mcbrood?”

“I am not being broody mcbrood” Carmilla mumbled, crossing her arms and pouting. Actually pouting.

Laura raised an eyebrow and Carmilla finally sighed in defeat, moving to sit upright, letting the book drop on the bed to her side, her girlfriend still in her lap.

“I just… I didn’t realise you and Tall Red – I mean _Danny_ \- were so close.”

“We weren’t. I told you, she was just my patient”

“She knew about your krav maga and she asked you about your dad”

“Carm, you know I talk a lot. Especially to patients who are in pain, I try to take their minds off of things by blabbing on and on about my boring life. And anyway I hadn’t seen Danny in years. Is it nice that she remembers all those things? Sure. But do I care whether she does or not? Not really. I just care about you. I _love_ you.”

Laura moved her lips to Carmilla's, who hummed into the kiss.

“Okay”

“Okay”

They whispered between kisses, before Laura pulled away to stare at Carmilla with a huge smile on her face.

“What?”

“Nothing,” she shook her head, “you’re just really cute when you’re jealous.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am #sorrynotsorry for making Kirsch an even more adorable puppy than he usually is, I just really love him, and Zeta Society. Also put a couple easter eggs in here, one very obvious one with the title, one that is maybe so subtle it’s only in my mind. But there’s a reference to a famous cute rom-com plot somewhere in there, if you reaaaaally look for it. There’s also a tiny angsty reference to the end of ACT III, which, don’t make me talk about ACT III. I was not ready. Was anybody ready? We were not ready.
> 
> Also, I realise I have not made this clear, it's not even that relevant but if you were wondering, this is a house warming dinner party after Carmilla moves back in with Laura. How much time has passed is up to you really. Could even be just a month or two, I can see these two lovebirds moving in together so soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello creampuffs! How are you? I assume pretty great after that ACT II drop, am I rite? ;)  
> I was rewatching Just Like Heaven the other day and I thought it would be a cute story to base an AU on. I followed the story pretty closely but I hope you can enjoy it even if you know the film. And, even more incredibly, I already finished writing it! Which means I will 200% post a chapter ever day until ACT III drops.  
> Also I don't think I have ever read a fanfic in which Laura is the ghost and not Carmilla so, there's that.  
> Enjoy and please leave me some feedback in the comments if you do! Or even if you don't. I'm lonely.


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